Daidouji Mayura: Chaos Goddess
by Yashahime
Summary: Mayura, a goddess? How did THAT happen? See for yourself!
1. Chapter 1: Accident

Daidouji Mayura: Chaos Goddess  
Chapter 1:  Accident  
By Lady Crysiana and Yasha-hime

  
Mayura would probably never know why she decided that going down into Loki's basement was a good idea.  She was, in all fairness, looking for Yamino-kun, who would probably later turn out to have been in some back closet, but this did not prevent her venturing forth into the dark mysterious gloom at the moment.  She shuddered involuntarily as she saw little purple flames all over the room.  "...weird..."   
The jaki flared and danced ominously.  It was trapped in its current conformation, but with such a ready vessel to contain it, it was straining at the spells that bound it.  Mayura walked towards the center of the room where much of the jaki was stored.  She was nearly to the metal frame when she tripped and went sprawling onto the frame with a crash.   
The jaki flames danced and whirled and gathered into one huge mass that flowed eagerly toward the waiting vessel that had just freed it.   
"Mayura!" Loki's voice screamed, and then he was there, shielding her as the heatless conflagration slammed into them.  He bit his lip bloody and poured every once of his power into shielding Mayura, to the point where he didn't even notice his form changing from child to adult.   
And then it was over, and Loki's arms gave out so he collapsed limply on top of Mayura.   
Mayura shook herself, dazed and unsure of what had just happened.  "Loki-kun?" she murmured unsteadily.   
Loki found the strength somewhere to roll to one side and sit up on one elbow.  He touched Mayura's cheek lightly with the other hand.  "Mayura, are you all right?" he asked in concern.   
Mayura pushed herself up into a sitting position.  "I'm...you're that guy."   
"...?" Loki blinked.  Only then did he notice that he was no longer a child.  "...this is going to take extended explanations, isn't it."   
Mayura looked at him for a long moment.  "Loki-kun?" she asked finally.   
"Un," Loki agreed wryly.  "Why don't we go up to my study to have this discussion?  It will be more comfortable."   
Mayura, now past her shock, was blushing and staring at the floor.  "...un," she said in a small voice.   
Loki rose and took Mayura's hand, pulling her to her feet.  "Come on," he said gently, leading her toward the stairs.  Poor child, he thought, she must still be in shock.  He managed somehow to totally miss the fangirling.  Mayura let him lead her towards the stairs.  Part of her mind was trying to process this new and confusing information.  Most of her mind was busy fangirling over someone that it did not particularly associate with Loki-kun.   
Loki got Mayura up to his study and sat her down on a couch.  "Yamino-kun!" he called down the hall.  "Please bring some tea!"   
Mayura stared dreamily at Loki, not really noticing when Yamino ran down the hall to stare into the room for a moment before shaking himself and going to get the tea.   
"...Mayura, are you sure you're all right?" Loki questioned in concern.   
"Mmhmmm," replied Mayura, still staring at Loki with hearts in her eyes.   
Yamino returned with the tea.  Mayura did not notice.  Loki finally, belatedly noticed the fangirling.  "...geh..."   
Yamino waved a hand in front of Mayura's face.  She managed to blink her way out of fangirling for the moment, and flushed with embarrassment as she stared down into her teacup.  "...um."   
Loki unwisely chose to sit next to Mayura, rather than across the table from her.  "You're sure you weren't hurt?"   
Mayura took a few moments to remember how to speak.  She finally said, "I think I'm alright."   
Loki picked up a cup of tea for himself.  "What were you doing in my basement, anyway?" he asked.   
"Looking for Yamino-kun," Mayura replied truthfully.  She looked over at Yamino and nearly dropped her tea.  She managed to spill it on the floor rather than on herself, though.  "...wha...wha...wha..."   
Loki frowned and set his teacup down.  "What's the matter?"   
"Mayura-san?" said Yamino, concerned.   
Mayura stared at Yamino.  "A snake?!" she squeaked.  Her tone was combined confusion and fear.       
"There aren't any snakes here," Loki soothed.  It was true...in a certain sense...   
"But...Yamino-kun...aura..."   
"Yamino-kun is Yamino-kun," Loki said firmly.   
"And 'boku wa boku,'" retorted Mayura.   
"Well, I am," Loki said, spreading his hands.   
Mayura made a face.  "Loki-kun..."  She sniffed and turned to Yamino.  "Why does your aura look like that?" she demanded.   
Yamino opened his mouth, then closed it, then looked to Loki for help. "It's a very long story," Loki offered.   
"And anyway, how can you see my aura, Mayura-san?" asked Yamino.   
Mayura blinked.  "...that's a good question."           
"It's probably because of the jaki," Loki commented, picking his tea up again.             
"The what?" asked Mayura.              
"Jaki," Loki said.  "The purple flames I'm sure you saw downstairs."       
"Oh.  What were they and what are you?"   
"They are the flames of evil that burn within human hearts," Loki said poetically.  He drew a deep, steadying breath.  "And I am a god who has been condemned to collect them."   
Mayura set her tea down.  "A god?" she asked, her eyes widening.   
Loki nodded as he sipped his tea.  He looked perfectly composed outwardly; inwardly, he was squirming like a worm on a hot plate.   
"That explains your staff," said Mayura thoughtfully.   
"Laevatin," Loki named the staff.   
"...may I ask a question?" Mayura said, very politely.   
"Of course."   
Mayura's voice was as icy as it ever got.  "Why didn't you tell me?"   
"At first," Loki said slowly, "You wouldn't have believed me.  Or if you had, it would have frightened you.  Later..."  Loki paused.  "There is a great deal of danger in my life, and I know you, Daidouji Mayura.  You would have dived right into the thick of it all.  You've been a target often enough unintentionally; I couldn't let you get yourself killed."   
Mayura blinked at Loki for a few long moments.  The extremely rational part of her brain that admitted that Loki's explanation made sense gave way as the feeling of what had just happened hit her.  She  buried her face in her hands and sobbed as something in her psyche decided that the tension inside had to come out somehow, and better crying than throwing objects in Loki-kun's study.   
Yamino started towards Mayura, then stopped when he noted that the walls had begun to weep blood.  He turned pale.   Loki slid an arm around Mayura's shoulders and pulled her into a comforting embrace.  "Shhh..." he soothed.  "It's all right."   
Mayura sobbed harder.  The glass panes of the windows shattered.  Loki held Mayura closer and ducked his head.  "I promise it's all right, Mayura."  After a long moment, Mayura blinked through her tears at Loki, then clung to him and pressed her face to his shoulder.  Slowly, her sobs receded to silent tears.  This was probably fortunate, since it meant that the books that had been flapping through the air dropped to the floor.   
Loki rocked Mayura gently in his arms, stroking her hair soothingly.  Mayura continued to cry for a good while, finally pushing away from Loki a little to stare at the room.  "...what happened?"   
"Apparently," Loki said a little too calmly, "more happened downstairs than I originally thought."   
Yamino had, by this time, emerged from his hiding spot under the couch.  "Loki-sama, that was..."  He looked around, frowning.   
"Mayura, I think you had better call your father and tell him you'll be staying here for a while."       
"Why?" asked Mayura, suddenly sounding on the verge of tears again.     
"Because somehow you've gotten my powers, and you'll need to learn how to control them, at least until I can figure out how to undo it."   
Mayura pulled away from Loki, still sniffling a little.  "I'll go and call him, and then...I need to take a nap."  She walked off to the kitchen.   
Yamino stared after her and collapsed onto one of the couches.  Loki waited until Mayura was gone, then buried his face in his hands with a terrified whimper.   
Mayura came back to lean in the doorway.  "He's throwing a fit but I told him what happened and he says it's okay," she reported.  "Loki-ku..."   
Yamino hurriedly led Mayura down the hall to a guest bedroom and convinced her that sleep was the best thing for her at the moment.  He walked back to the study and stopped to look at Loki from the doorway.  Loki had not moved, nor responded to Ecchan, who hovered over his head in concern.   
"Loki-sama," said Yamino softly.   
Loki raised his head after a moment's pause.  "Yamino-kun?"   
"Um, will you be alright, Loki-sama?" asked Yamino hesitantly.   
"I don't know," Loki answered honestly, voice unsteady.  "Yamino-kun, I can't even See anymore."   
Yamino walked over to sit down next to Loki and smiled reassuringly.  "I'm sure we'll be able to get your powers back to you, Loki-sama."   
"Assuming I survive that long," Loki said darkly.  "Considering the number of people out for my blood, and the number of others who might just kill me accidentally because they don't stop and **listen**."   
"...we could probably ask Narugami-kun for help," said Yamino.   
"I suppose there isn't much choice."   
"It can probably wait until Mayura-san wakes up..."   
"This is going to be troublesome."   
Yamino placed a comforting hand on Loki's shoulder.   Loki heaved a huge sigh.  "I'm going to have to teach Mayura rudimentary spellcraft when I can't even See what she's doing.  I'm going to have to try my best to stay out of the way of **everyone** else.  And I don't even know what else is going to happen, but I'm sure it's not going to end with this."   
Yamino decided not to voice the concern of what might happen if and when Odin found out, since Loki had probably thought of that and if he hadn't Yamino didn't want to bring it up.  He said, "I'm sure we can manage, somehow."   
Loki seemed to have recovered his composure by now.  "Aa," he agreed with a sigh.  "How long is it until dinner?"   
"A half-hour," replied Yamino.  He rose and headed for the door of the study, then paused.  "Ecchan is staying close to you, if it makes you feel better," he offered.   
Loki sighed again. 

"Why did I have to come over now?" grumbled Thor to Yamino as they entered Loki's study.  "I just got a new part time job."   
"Narukami-kun," Loki greeted from behind his desk.  He sat neatly, his hands folded in front of him on the desk, and was clearly **not** a child.   
Thor jumped and blinked at Loki.  "What happened this time?" he asked, walking over to Loki's desk.   
Loki was silent for a long moment, gathering the courage to admit the problem.  "There was an accident with the jaki I've collected, and Mayura has received all of my power," he blurted finally.   
"...." said Thor.  He knew that laughing was inappropriate, since this was a serious situation, but... "You're really screwed, aren't you?"   
Loki gave Thor a dark look.  "Thank you kindly for your excellent support, Narukami-kun," he said flatly.   
Thor sighed.  "Well, I can only do so much to help, you know.  If you want **good** seals, you know that I'm not the one to go to."   
"I'm less worried about Mayura than I am about myself.  Nobody wants Mayura dead just because she exists."   
"That I can help you with."   
"The worst of it is..."  Loki hesitated.   
"Hm?" said Thor, looking curious.   
"I've lost any ability to See."   
"...maybe you shouldn't go outside until we've figured out how to fix this."   
"I have, in fact, considered that."   
"It would keep Heimdall from finding out, at least."   
"I hope."   
Thor leaned against one of the couches.  "Do you have any plan of what you're going to do?"   
"Only the most rudimentary ones of training Mayura not to accidentally ruin my walls, books, and windows, while at the same time trying to figure out how to get my power back where it belongs."   
"So what's the new goddess of chaos doing now?"   
Loki twitched.  "Are you even taking this seriously?"   
"I take every new member of the pantheon seriously."   
"Mayura is **not** a new member of the pantheon," Loki growled.   
"Then what is she?"   
"You realize I **will** remember this when I get my powers back, don't you?"   
Thor rolled his eyes.  "Loki, are you, at the moment, a god?"   
"I don't want to discuss this."   
"Alright."   
Loki really, really, really did **not** want to think about the concept of not being a god, to be honest, and it showed all over his face.  Thor shrugged.  "It'll be fine.  You'll just have to be careful until we get things fixed."   
"I don't know why I let Yamino-kun talk me into confiding in you," Loki muttered.   
"Because I'm going to live in your house and make reasonably sure that nothing kills you between now and the time that you pull yourself together."   
"...if I promise to pay you for it, will you refrain from taunting me?"   
"If you pay me a living wage, sure."   
"On the other hand, given your luck with part-time jobs, can I be sure my house will survive if I pay you?"  Loki rested his cheek on his fist.  "My insurance doesn't cover acts of god, after all."   
Thor hmphed.  "It's like being back home."   
"Without the sex," Loki added dryly.   
"Just don't go outside the house alone, and **don't** go near that one market where Freyr and Heimdall shop.  The rest will take care of itself."   
"Which market is that?"   
"You know, the one ten or so blocks away that has the snacks they like."   
"Oh, **that** one."   
"Yes, **that** one.  Don't go there."   
"I have no reason to."   
"Good.  I'll go tell Megane that I'm staying here for a while."  Thor headed out of Loki's study.   
Loki sighed and got up.  He was going to take a walk.  The backyard would be safe enough; it wasn't really outside the house, per se. 

Twenty minutes later, having exhausted the potential of the backyard and the house, Loki was ill-advisedly wandering the streets without paying any attention to where he was.   
Heimdall was, at the moment, in the aforementioned market with Freyr.  "I do **not** like eggplant," Heimdall muttered sourly, shooting a glare at Freyr.  He was somewhat distracted from his complaint when he noticed Loki walking by.  Loki did not notice Heimdall.  At all.  Of course, he had stopped to look at some of the merchandise absently, which might have had something to do with it.   
Heimdall was understandably upset at noticing Loki in kakusei form at all.  However, he did believe in fair play, and so the first bolt of power he sent at Loki was both easy to sense and fairly easy to dodge.  If one could See it coming.   
Loki belatedly recalled Thor's advice as he sprawled face-down on the pavement, gasping in pain.  Heimdall frankly stared when the bolt actually hit Loki and hurried to Loki's side.  Once there, he prodded Loki's shoulder with his foot.  "Oi.  What's wrong with you?"   
Loki wondered if playing dead would work and did not move.   
"I can tell you're still breathing.  Answer my question."   
"...damn," Loki muttered into the pavement.  He sat up, wincing in pain, and wiped blood off several small cuts on his face.   
Heimdall sighed and leaned towards Loki.  "Brace yourself on my shoulder and come help me stop Freyr from buying eggplants."   
Loki leaned away from Heimdall.  "...who are you and what have you done with Heimdall?"   
"You're boring when you're helpless.  There's no fun in torturing someone who can't do anything about it."   
Loki developed a severe twitch in his left eye.   
"Yo, Heimdall!" Freyr called heartily as he came up behind his friend.  "I got fifty-seven eggplants for the price of nine, look!  ...geh...**Loki**!"  He very nearly dropped his shopping bags.    
"Don't worry, he's impotent," said Heimdall to Freyr.   
"I have a potion for that..." Freyr started to say, while Loki sputtered indignantly.            "He has no power," Heimdall rephrased.          
"...uh?" Freyr blinked.    
Loki contemplated shoving a couple of those eggplants up Heimdall's nose and regretfully decided he probably wouldn't be able to manage it.  Impotent, indeed!   
"He can't See, he can't fight, he can't summon.  He has no magical power whatsoever."  Heimdall looked amused.   
"...he's **mortal**!?" Freyr squawked loudly.   
"Thank you, Freyr, I'm sure no one in all the three realms heard you," Loki said dryly.   "Come on," said Heimdall, offering Loki a hand.  "We have bandages at home."   
"No, thank you," Loki declined politely, remaining right where he was.     
"If I were going to kill or torture you, I'd do it on the street.  I'd rather hear about how you managed to do this to yourself."   
"No, thank you," Loki repeated more forcefully.   
Heimdall shrugged and bound Loki with the Ribbon of Doom™.  "Your choice."   
Loki struggled.  Half the problem was that he could not actually **see** the Ribbon of Doom™, only feel it, so it was pretty much impossible to escape.   
"Gullinbrusti," Freyr summoned.  He hung the bags off the pig's ears and lifted the helpless Loki up to sit on its back.  "Okay, now we can go!" the Vanir said cheerfully.   
Loki being taken care of, Heimdall turned to the other issue.  "**Why** are you buying so many eggplants?"   
"They were on sale," Freyr said innocently.  Heimdall muttered something unkind.  "And they were out of pumpkins," Freyr continued.   
"Remind me why I put up with an idiot like you."   
"You'd be lonely without me," Freyr said sulkily.  Heimdall grumbled all the way back to the house.   
Gullinbrusti took a course like a drunken bumblebee, finally electing to zip several hundred feet up, at which time Loki stopped trying to roll off the pig and run.   
Heimdall seated himself in an armchair when they arrived at the house.  He was still sulking about the eggplants, but he brightened when he remembered that he also had a Loki to question.  Loki wore a distinctly sulky look when Gullinbrusti dumped him on the couch and zipped off to the kitchen after his master.   
"Don't feel too bad," Heimdall advised.  "You get to see Freyr inflict his cooking on me."   
"Mou, hidoi, Heimdall!" Freyr accused as he returned to the living room.  "Your cooking is no better!"   
"I don't make you eat my cooking."   
"Fine, you don't have to eat!" Freyr sniffed.   
Heimdall rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Loki.  "What happened to you?"   
"You know," Loki said thoughtfully, staring at the ceiling, "you two sound like you're married."   
"Answer the question."   
"And what do you intend to do if I don't?"   
"There's always the option of searching your mind myself, but I'm given to understand that that's painful."   
"It's really none of your business," Loki said.   
"I only ask because power doesn't just disappear; it has to go somewhere.  But you don't have any of yours right now."   
"Oh, I know where it is," Loki assured his captor.   
"Really?"  Heimdall sounded actively interested now.   
"And it's still none of your business."   
Heimdall glared at Loki.  Loki glared back.  Heimdall shrugged and reached into Loki's mind.  Loki screamed in agony.  Freyr came running out of the kitchen and smacked Heimdall on the back of the head with a towel.   
Heimdall pulled out of Loki's mind and glanced at Freyr.  "He refused to tell me."   
"It's not nice to pick on the handicapped!" Freyr retorted sharply.  Loki twitched again, though that might have been in reaction to the pain.   
"I found what I was looking for, anyway," said Heimdall.   
"Sou ka?  What is it, then?" Freyr demanded eagerly.   
"There was an accident, and his power was transferred to that girl."   
"...that girl?" Freyr asked.   
"You know.  Mayura."   
Blank look.   
With extreme patience, Heimdall said, "Yamato Nadeshiko."   
Stars immediately appeared in Freyr's eyes.  "Yamato Nadeshiko is a goddess!?"   
"...buhi," Gullinbrusti said from the doorway.   
"A **chaos** goddess.  An untrained one," pointed out Heimdall.   
"Buhi," Gullinbrusti said again.   
"I will take her home to Asgard with me!" Freyr wept, hands clasped gleefully and tears of joy streaming down his cheeks.          
There was a pause, then Heimdall turned to Loki.  "So how can I help you get your powers back?"   
"....excuse me?" Loki blinked.  "My hearing must be off.  **What** did you say?"   
"Buhi!"   
"I want to help you get back to normal," said Heimdall.   
Loki gawked in amazement at Heimdall.   
"**Buhi!**" Gullinbrusti insisted violently as black smoke began to pour into the living room.   
"...eh..?" Freyr blinked.  "**Ehhhhh!?  My dinner is burning!  Ahhhhh!**"  He stopped fangirling and ran down the hall into the kitchen.              
Heimdall sighed and closed his eyes.  "I should go help him."   
"You do that," Loki encouraged.   
"I'll wait until he starts screaming again."   
Right about on cue, there was a scream in the kitchen.  Heimdall made a face and headed for the kitchen.   
It took almost half an hour to put out the fire, by which time Loki (who had very politely asked Gullinbrusti to let him loose) was gone.   
"We'll have to pay Loki a visit tomorrow," mused Heimdall.   
"My eggplant parmigana," Freyr mourned. "...eh?  Why?"   
"I thought you'd want to see your Yamato Nadeshiko as a goddess."   
"Well, of course, but--**eh**!?  You mean that fiend Loki is--!?"   
"I mean that if I were him, I'd be concerned with having a chaos goddess shedding power all over the city and would keep her close."   
"He can't have Freya-chan **and** Yamato Nadeshiko!" Freyr shrieked.  "Gullinbrusti!  Let's go!"   
Heimdall gave Freyr a Look.  "Freyr, calm down and help me clean the kitchen and **then** we can go disrupt the peace at Loki's house."   
It was too late.  Freyr and Gullinbrusti were already on their way out.  Through the window.  Heimdall picked up the phone and called Yamino to warn him of the impending Vanir. 

Loki had only just made it home (limping badly) when the phone call came in.  He was immediately faced with Mayura, Thor, and Yamino.  Yamino spoke first.  "Freyr is coming to visit."   
"...lovely."   
Thor growled, "What part of 'don't leave the house alone' is hard to understand?"   
At the same time, Mayura said, "Loki-kun is hurt!"      
"If you don't want me to go outside, Narukami-kun, you'll have to find something worthwhile for me to do **inside**," Loki retorted, leaning against the doorframe tiredly.   
Yamino was ushering Loki into the house, so he missed the fact that Thor blinked and glanced at Mayura.  Loki limped to the nearest seat and sat, vowing not to get up again until his leg didn't feel like it was on fire.   
Yamino brought everyone tea and announced that dinner would be ready soon.   
About that time, the front door blew open--and off its hinges--and Freyr and Gullinbrusti entered.  "**Loki!  I won't forgive youuuuu!**"   
Unfortunately, they overshot the living room and crashed into the kitchen.   
"...or maybe not," sighed Yamino.   
Just then, a cab pulled up outside.  Heimdall proceeded to get out and walk through the no-longer-front-door.  He immediately said to Thor, "You don't have to defend Loki from me.  I want him to get his powers back."   
"....." said Thor.   
"You know, right now I think I'd rather just die," Loki said thoughtfully.   
"Too bad," retorted Heimdall.   
Yamino was already heading over to the kitchen to assess the damage.   
"I really, really, really, **really **hate you, Heimdall."   
"I assure you the feeling is mutual."   
Freyr sat in the middle of a huge pile of dishes and pots and pans that had, until a moment ago, contained dinner.  He absently wiped a streak of something off his cheek and tasted it.  "Ah...oishii," he noted.   
Yamino wilted and came back to the group in the living room.  "Supper won't be for a while..."    
Loki heaved a sigh.  "What did you tell Freyr, Heimdall?"   
"I told him that you were probably keeping Mayura close so that you could train her," said Heimdall.   
That twitch developed in Loki's left eye again, and he shot an evil glare at the kitchen door.  "Sou ka."   
Freyr had decided that since it was, after all, his fault all these pots and pans were on the floor, he would at least chuck them in the sink.  He was making quite a racket doing it, too.   
"You know, one of these times, I'm going to have to tell him about the time that Freya snuck out to Bifrost for a week," Loki said thoughtfully.   
Yamino rushed back to save his kitchen.  This began with the physical removal of Freyr.  Heimdall shrugged and sat down on one of the couches.  "You can tell him now if you want."   
"I didn't invite you here.  Go home."   
"If you want my help, you can ask.  Otherwise, I'm just here to take the idiot back home."   
"I would rather walk naked through a bramble thicket than ask for your help," Loki retorted as Yamino was finally successful in booting Freyr out of the kitchen.  Freyr made a nice arc, too, and landed on the welcome mat.   
"Suit yourself.  Just something to keep in mind; there's nothing keeping her from going to Asgard."  Heimdall wandered out the door, politely requesting of Gullinbrusti assistance in getting Freyr home.   
"What did he mean by that?" Mayura asked.  "What's Asgard?"   
Gullinbrusti was more than willing to cart his master off; that was, after all, his main function.  He was even willing to let Heimdall hitch a ride.   
"Asgard is the world where the gods dwell," Loki said tightly.        
"...why would he point out that I can go there?"   
"Because I can't," Loki explained.   
"Oh," said Mayura softly.  She frowned and moved to sit next to Loki.  "I just want to give you your powers back," she said.   
Loki forced a smile.  "I know."   
"...can you teach me something so that the bathroom thing doesn't happen again?"   
"...eh...bathroom thing?"   
"Yamino-san fixed the pipes very well!"   
"...what...happened...to my bathroom?"   
"It wasn't an explosion!  Not really!"   
"...you blew up my bathroom!?"   
"**No!**  ...maybe a little."   
"I don't believe it--you blew up my bathroom!  Mayura!"   
Loki was using a teasing tone.  Unfortunately, Mayura was not especially listening to this, and she started to sniffle.  This was followed by Yamino throwing himself from the kitchen, running across the room, getting a fire extinguisher, running back across the room and applying the fire extinguisher to the kitchen sink.   
Yamino walked into the living room with a look of tense patience on his face.  "Loki-sama, why did the water coming from the sink just turn to fire?"   
Mayura winced.   
Loki sighed.  "Mayura," he said gently, "I know you didn't do it on purpose."   
Mayura looked cheered at that.  Pastel sparklies appeared around her for anyone with the Sight, and she blinked.  "Ooooh, pretty!"   
"...nn?" Loki blinked.   
Yamino shook his head, smiled and returned to the kitchen.   
Thor grinned.  "She can make her own shoujo sparkles."   
"...masaka..." Loki twitched.   
"They're pretty, Loki-kun," said Mayura.  "Could Loki-kun make pastel sparklies?"   
"**No,**" Loki said a little too quickly.   
"Are you sure?" asked Thor.  "I seem to remember them."   
"Your memory is defective," Loki said quite firmly.   
"No, I don't think so," said Thor.  He turned to Mayura.  "One time Loki got really drunk..."   
Mayura leaned forward, eager to hear the story.  "Shut **up**, Thor!" Loki screeched.   
Thor coughed politely.  "Well, at any rate, Loki can generate pastel sparklies."   
"No, I can't!"   
"Do you want me to tell the rest of the story?"   
"Do you want me to tell everyone we know about you and sock-dancing?"   
"Do you two always fight like an old married couple?" asked Mayura.   
"No, only on special occasions," Loki responded blandly.   
"Like on the occasions that Loki-kun sparkles?"   
"I do **not** sparkle."   
Mayura smiled at Loki.  It was obvious even to someone without the Sight that she was sparkling.   
It was obvious to anyone at all that Loki was feeling sorry for himself, in addition to still being in pain.   
Mayura blinked, got up, and hurried upstairs.  She returned a few moments later with bandages and antiseptic, which she applied to his face.  "Ow!" Loki yelped at the antiseptic sting.   
"Hold still," said Mayura as she put the bandages on Loki's face.  She produced a bottle of aspirin.  "Do you know how to swallow pills?"   
Loki eyed the aspirin.  "...no," he admitted.   
Mayura set the bottle of aspirin down and went to go get a glass of water.  She offered the glass to Loki.   
"...what's this for?" Loki wanted to know.   
"Most people find swallowing pills with a liquid easier than dry swallowing," replied Mayura.   
"...oh."            Mayura handed Loki two pills.  "You just...swallow them."  She shrugged helplessly.   
Loki eyed the pills again, then shrugged and tossed them in his mouth.  They went right down, and then he sipped the water.  Mayura face-faulted.  Thor pointedly did not comment.   
"...that's it?" Loki questioned.   
Thor spoke directly to Mayura.  "No, you don't want to know."   
"Well it's not like they were very big or anything," Loki shrugged.   
"No, I don't," agreed Mayura.   
"...what?"   
"Nothing," said Thor and Mayura in unison.   
Loki sighed.  "I'm going to bed," he announced.   
"The pills should help with the pain," Mayura said.   
"Is that what they were for?"   
"...yes."  Mayura gave Loki a Look.  "What if I'd said no, that they were poisonous to humans?"   
"I might have believed you because I watch TV."   
"You don't watch TV; it disturbs you."   
"Exactly."   
"...do you need help getting into bed?"   
"No, I think I should be able to manage that much on my own," Loki said.  He was proud of the fact that there was only a hint of sarcasm in his voice.   
Mayura gave Loki a motherly look.  "I only asked because I wasn't sure if you needed help with your leg the way it is."   
"I'm not **that** badly handicapped," Loki said sulkily.   
"...you're not handicapped at all; your leg is hurt."   
Loki muttered to himself in Old Norse as he limped up the stairs.   
Yamino stuck his head out of the kitchen.  "You warned him about the pillows, didn't you?"   
Mayura turned pale and ran up the stairs after Loki.  "Loki-kuuuuuuuuuuun!"   
"**E-yoooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww!**" Loki screeched.  Mayura winced and ran to see what the damage was.   
The ex-trickster god would not be sitting down for a while.   
Mayura pried the carnivorous pillow off of Loki's bottom and lead him to the room where she was staying (which was conspicuously devoid of pillows).  "I'm sorry, I forgot to warn you..."   
"This has **got** to have been the absolute worst day I have **ever** had," Loki growled.   
"I don't even know why the pillows like the taste of human flesh now!"   
"We'll figure it out tomorrow," Loki sighed, rubbing absently at his temples.  The aspirin was not, in fact, making much of a dent in the headache Heimdall had given him.   
"You can sleep in my bed."   
"Thank you," Loki mumbled, climbing into the bed and collapsing on his stomach.   
Mayura touched the bloody area on Loki's pants.  "We should do something about this..."   
"...ow!"   
"Take your pants off," said Mayura.  Her words suddenly registered in her mind, and she blushed a dark red.   
"...no, no, I don't think that would be a good idea at **all**," Loki denied.   
"Someone needs to bandage, uh...that...wound..."  Mayura was stumbling over her words now.  "I could get Yamino-kun..."   
"Please," Loki agreed.   
Mayura ran out of the room, still blushing a dark shade of red.  Loki rather painfully managed to remove his damaged trousers before laying back down.  On his stomach, of course.   
Yamino came up and cleaned and dressed Loki's wounds in roughly five seconds, then wrapped Loki in a blanket and carried him outside.  "......" Loki said, sweat-dropping.  "...Yamino-kun, what's going on **now**?"   
"I'm sorry!" wailed Mayura.   
"The doors are all disappearing, Loki-sama," replied Yamino.  "It was easier than climbing out the window would have been."   
"....disappearing?"   
"Turning into wall," explained Thor.   
Loki was visibly startled.  "I don't think I ever tried **that** one," he said.   
"You did when you were hiding from...I don't remember who," said Thor.   
"Oh.  Well.  Yamino-kun, did you remember to grab Fenrir and Ecchan?"   
"They're out here, Loki-sama."  Yamino gestured to both of them.   
"Loki-kun, how can I undo this?" asked Mayura.   
"It would be easier to tell you if I could See what you'd done in the first place," Loki sighed.   
"Let's see...the pillows were black puffs of inverted smoke, the bathroom was fire, the sink was fire, the doors were white fog..."   
Loki considered for a moment, sifting through bits of knowledge that floated around in his head and usually he didn't have to actually think about.  "You summoned imps into the pillows.  The bathroom and the sink were elemental and you can't undo that.  The doors..."  He trailed off with a frown.   
"...the doors are still there in the fog," offered Mayura.   
Loki's expression cleared.  "It's just illusions, then."   
"How do I fix it?" Mayura asked again.   
"Make the fog go away."   
Mayura closed her eyes.  The doors reappeared and several windows broke.   
"...what happened to the windows?" Loki wanted to know.   
"...a side effect from the wind that blew the fog away?"   
"Wind?"   
"...yeah."   
"There's nothing wrong with that," Loki assured Mayura.  "It's just that to me, it looks like the fog compacts itself into a little ball and then right out of existence."   
"...I'm sorry about the pillows," said Mayura.   
"That," Loki grimaced, "is going to be a real mess to clean up."   
"Why?" asked Mayura.   
"Because you summoned the imps accidentally, there are no restraints on them," Loki explained as he finished folding the blanket around him in a toga-like fashion.  "We'll have to send each one home individually.  We'll be finding biting pillows for weeks."   
Mayura wilted.  "...most of the pillows are in your room."   
"....geh....**my** room??"  Loki shot an accusing glare at his youngest son.   
"...well, we needed to lock them in **somewhere**," said Mayura reasonably.   
Yamino edged away.  "I'm sorry, Loki-sama..."   
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we have several small rooms with sturdy doors known as storage closets."   
"But the pillows were already in your room because of the, uh, nevermind," said Mayura.  She very quickly began heading for the house.   
"Because of the what?" Loki demanded, limping after Mayura.   
"**Nothing!**  Absolutely nothing!"   
"Don't give me that!  What **else** happened?!"   
"...well, I sort of got locked in your bedroom."   
"...."   
"It was an accident!"   
"And then what happened?" Loki demanded suspiciously.   
"**Nothing whatsoever.**"   
"You are very bad at lying, Mayura, and I'm very good at not being lied to.  I've raised children.  Spit it out."   
"No," said Mayura flatly.  "It's embarrassing and the traces of it are gone and I'm not telling you."   
"Then how did the pillows get into my room?"   
"It was...well, I think they ended up being in there because of…texture thing."   
"...texture thing?"   
"I'm not expanding on that."   
"You know, I'm going to find out about this some day."   
"Not from me."   
"Even so."   
"Shouldn't you be trying to not upset me?"   
"It would hardly be the first time my insatiable curiosity has gotten me into trouble." 

**To Be Continued...**


	2. Chapter 2: Control Issues

Daidouji Mayura: Chaos Goddess  
Chapter 2: Control Issues  
By Lady Crysiana and Yasha-hime

  
Mayura was sitting in the living room and reading a magazine.  It was one of Yamino's mail order magazines but, she reflected, it was better than nothing.   
"Oh, here you are," Loki said, sticking his head into the living room.  He was wearing a pair of Yamino's pants (which were about two inches too short) and one of Yamino's shirts (unbuttoned to the waist because it, too, was a little too small).   
Mayura looked up at Loki and managed to only fangirl for roughly a minute.  "...what did you say?"   
"Come out to the backyard," Loki repeated patiently.  "I'm going to start teaching you to control the power."   
Mayura put the magazine down and headed over to join Loki in the backyard.  Loki was still limping, and the dressing on his rear made an odd and mobile lump in his pants.  He picked up a cast-iron kettle from the kitchen and led Mayura out to the backyard.  Fenrir had dug up a patch of earth for his father out there, and Loki deposited the kettle on it and lowered himself to an awkward and painful seat a few feet away.   
Mayura blinked at the kettle, then looked to Loki.  "What am I supposed to do?"   
"You're going to learn to boil water," Loki said cheerfully.   
"You mean rather than turning it into fire?"   
"Exactly.  The trick is to convince the fire that it's inside the water, and should work together with the water rather than fighting it."   
Mayura frowned slightly.  "But I don't even know how I turn water to fire."   
"You said that it looked like fire when you did it," Loki pointed out.  "It all comes out of your imagination, which I have reason to know is an excellent one."   
Mayura gave him a flat look.  She then turned her attention to the kettle.  Loki just waited and watched, hand slipping under the tarp next to him to feel for the fire extinguisher.   
The column of fire that consumed the kettle and the area around it surprisingly did not melt the kettle.  Loki whipped out the fire extinguisher and put out the fire that very nearly caught his toes.  He did this rapidly, but calmly, having expected these results.  After the fire was out, he set the extinguisher down and hosed the area off and refilled the kettle.  "Try again," he said in a very teacher-like voice.   
"But it just turns to fire!"   
"Mayura," Loki said firmly.  "This is not like a math test.  I'm not going to let you quit.  The only way to learn to do this is by trying again and again and again, until you get it right, and if you give up, you are **going** to hurt someone close to you."   
Mayura stared at the ground for a long moment.  "I'm sorry."   
"Come and sit here with me," Loki invited in a gentle voice, patting the scorched ground next to him.   
Mayura sat down next to Loki.  Loki put an arm around her shoulders.  "Nothing **very** bad has happened yet," he comforted.  "I think we should try to keep it that way, don't you?"   
Mayura leaned against Loki.  "It's confusing.  It's scary to look around and see something and realize that most people couldn't."   
"It's what you've wanted for a long time, though, isn't it?"   
"I thought so."   
"For me, it's disconcerting to know there are things there that I can't see," Loki said.  "It's a matter of perspective, wouldn't you say?"   
"It scared you, didn't it?"   
"Considering my situation, yes."   
Mayura turned back to the kettle, which prompted what resembled a geyser.  Loki whipped an umbrella out from under the tarp and opened it before they were more than spattered a little.   
Mayura was bouncing.  "It didn't turn to fire!"   
"It wasn't precisely boiling, either," Loki pointed out.  "It's a good start, though."  Mayura nodded, looking cheerful and eager now.  Loki refilled the kettle again.  "Try again."   
Ten tries later, Mayura's cheer was waning and her feet were soaked.  "Give it one more try before lunch," Loki encouraged.   
Mayura made a face and concentrated on the kettle again, bracing herself for another soaking.  The water proceeded to boil.  "...I...I did it?"   
"Oh, just in time for lunch, then," Loki noted.  He pulled out a couple of cup ramen packages, opened them, and dipped out the water for the ramen with a handy ladle.   
"Mouuuuu, Loki!" Mayura glared at Loki.   
"Should we waste it, then?" Loki asked with a charming smile.   
Mayura looked thoughtful. "Actually, I'm surprised you would have cup ramen for lunch."   
"If I have to cook on my own, this is about as much as I'm capable of," Loki admitted wryly.   
"Somehow that doesn't surprise me."   
Loki shrugged.  "When I used to travel on my own, I usually changed my shape, and then it didn't matter.  Or I'd bargain for my supper."   
"But Yamino-kun loves to do things for you."   
"Aa," Loki agreed softly, looking up at the sky.   
Mayura shifted and seemed about to say something, but subsided.   
"Hm?" Loki prompted.   
Mayura turned away, hoping Loki hadn't seen her blush.  "It's nothing," she murmured.   
"Eat up," Loki prompted after a moment, having missed the blush.  "We're going to be here all afternoon."   
Mayura settled in for a meal of cup ramen.  She did not look at Loki.  She concentrated hard on not looking at Loki.  Very hard.  "...is something wrong?" Loki questioned after a few minutes of this.   
Mayura glanced at Loki.  "No!" she assured him hurriedly.  "Nothing's wrong."   
"Are you sure?  You can tell me, you know."   
Mayura shook her head.  "It's nothing.  Really."   
"If you're sure..."   
"It's just...silly."   
"There's nothing wrong with a little silliness."   
"And it's pointless," whispered Mayura softly.   
"I won't force you to tell me," Loki murmured gently.   
"Mm."  Mayura looked away from Loki.   
Loki leaned forward with the hose and added a bit more water to the kettle.  "Lunchtime's over," he announced with sadistic cheer.   
Mayura groaned.  It did, however, break the cloud of melancholy, which given her control was probably a good thing.   
"When you can do it ten times in a row, you can quit," Loki instructed.   
Mayura stared at the kettle.  The kettle grew legs and hid under the tarp.  "...."   
Loki picked up the fire extinguisher and whacked the kettle with it.  Then he placed the kettle back in the burned spot.   
"...did you just knock the kettle unconscious?"   
"I can hope."   
Mayura frowned, concentrated, and caused the water to boil twice before the kettle was back on its feet and wandering around unsteadily.   
Loki politely KOed the kettle again and refilled it.   
Mayura managed it three more times before the kettle stirred and made a break for the house.  Loki chased the kettle and caught it on the doorstep.  He whacked it three times in a row this time.  "Die, already!"   
"Loki!  Don't kill it!" yelled Mayura.  "It's a...thing."   
"It's a **kettle**.  A possessed kettle, but still a kettle."   
Mayura gave Loki the Sad Puppy Dog Eyes.   
"You can't be so soft on these things," Loki scolded.  "Where do you think this kettle would wind up if you let it wander around?"   
Mayura had picked the kettle up and was petting it and cooing at it.   
"...geh...Mayura, are you listening to me?"   
"And I'll call you K-chan!" Mayura declared happily.  She blinked at Loki.  "Did you say something?"   
"You can't keep the kettle as a pet," Loki said firmly.   
"Oh, but I bet it doesn't eat much!"   
"You don't even know **what** it might eat!"   
The kettle rubbed against Mayura's arms like a kitten.   
Mayura beamed at it.  "It likes me!"   
Loki sighed and gave up.  "And I thought Skuld had weird pets..."   
Mayura held the kettle out to Loki.  "Isn't K-chan adorable?"   
"...it's a kettle, Mayura," Loki tried again.   
"Papa might even let me keep it..."  Mayura cradled the kettle in one arm and hugged Loki with the other, sparkling.   
Loki heaved a huge sigh.  "I give up."  Mayura had gone back to making of the kettle.  Loki sighed third time and gathered up the supplies.  The lesson was over, for sure.   
Mayura walked over to Loki, still holding the kettle.  "Thank you for the lesson, Loki-kun."   
"I'll teach you more tomorrow," Loki promised.  "As it is, you've learned some control over the power today, so you should be able to manage not to do things accidentally for a while."   
"...oh, before we go in, I think I heard Yamino-kun banging the living room pillows on the floor."   
"Imps," Loki grimaces, "are notoriously difficult to kill.  Impossible, really.  You have to banish them.  But at least they won't bite if they're unconscious."   
"Should I go do the wavey wavey thing at the living room pillows then?"   
"Probably a good idea," Loki agreed.   
Mayura set the kettle down and went into the house.  The kettle heeled.  Loki heaved a sigh and put the lesson supplies away before entering the living room cautiously.   
The kettle was battling one pillow while Mayura went through the ritual to banish the imp in another one.  Loki stomped on a pillow that was trying to get away, and got his shoe chewed up for his trouble.   
Mayura hurried to banish that imp next, then took care of the one that the kettle now stood over victoriously.   
"Yamino-kun," Loki said wryly, staring at his masticated shoe, "I think it's time to go shopping."   
"It looks like it, Loki-sama," agreed Yamino.  He was poking the other pillows on the sofa with a broom.   
Nothing leapt up and bit the broom, so the living room seemed safe for the moment.   
"Where are you going to go shopping?" asked Mayura.  "I mean...nowhere around here sells stuff like what you wear..."   
"I'll have to take what I can get," Loki shrugged.   
"Can I come?"   
Loki shrugged.  "If you want.  I don't promise to take any advice you give, though." 

"But you **have** to wear the hat!" Mayura protested.  "The hat makes the outfit!"   
"I categorically refuse," Loki said bluntly.  He wasn't wearing the gloves, either, but that was because his hands got hot.  At the moment, the jacket (a long, loose, hooded blue fleece thing with short sleeves on it) was draped over the side of the cart as Loki admired himself in the mirror.   
The indecently tight jeans and long-sleeved midriff top were drawing scads of feminine attention, and Loki was enjoying that.  He liked the jacket, too, he had to admit.  It had pockets he could actually get his hands into.   
"Pleaaaaaaaaaaaase?" said Mayura, clinging to Loki's arm.  The girls in the vicinity sighed at seeing **another** hot guy already taken.   
"You won on the issue of K-chan.  I get to win on the issue of the hat.  No."   
"Can I at least see how it looks on you?"   
"...I don't think I trust you enough to say yes.  I don't want the thing permanently affixed to my hair."   
"I wouldn't do that!  And if I did, I'd fix it!"   
"You wouldn't fix K-chan," Loki pointed out reasonably.   
"But I don't want you to wear the hat **forever**," replied Mayura.  She crossed her arms.  "I just want to see what you look like in it."   
"We don't get to shop anymore if I say no, do we?"   
"No, we don't."   
Loki heaved a dramatic sigh.  "Oh, all right.  But just for a minute."  He pulled on the jacket and the gloves, then eyed the cat-eared hat with disfavor.   
Mayura held the hat out to him, beaming.  Loki grumbled to himself as he pulled the hat on.  "It looks stupid."   
Mayura clapped her hands together.  "You look so cute!"   
"Stupid, cute, I suppose they could be considered synonyms in a case like this."  Loki reached up to pull the hat off.   
The hat, surprisingly, came off.  With no ill effect.  Loki put the hat on the nearest return rack and backed away from it.  The hat stayed where it was.  Mayura looked amused.  "Now you can try other things on."   
"I intend to.  ...in another store."   
"Are you buying that one?"   
"Everything but the hat and the gloves, I think.  The gloves are uncomfortable, and you know my opinion of the hat."   
"I know."   
Loki headed for the counter.  He kept casting wary looks over his shoulder at the hat as he did so.  The shop girl stared at him blankly for so long that Mayura finally pushed him away from the counter and took over the transaction.   
Loki winked at the shop girl over Mayura's head.   
The shop girl melted.  The hat attached itself to Loki's head.  "...geh..."  Loki glowered at nothing.   
"Hello, Loki," Heimdall said from the doorway to the store.  It was evident that he and Freyr had been walking by.   Loki closed his eyes for a moment and directed some very heart-felt curses at the Norns.   
"Ahhh, what a cute hat!" Freyr cheered.  "I want one!"   
Mayura turned around, shopping bag in hand.  "Loki-kun, I'm so sorry!" she wailed.   
"I knew it," Loki ground out.  "I **knew** the hat was a bad idea."   
"I don't even know why it happened," said Mayura, though she did turn to pay for the hat as well.   
"...why are you paying for the hat?  I don't want the hat!"   
Freyr was trying to drag Heimdall over to the stack of hats; he wanted to get one for each of them.   
"Because we can't stay in the store while I try to figure out how to get it off," said Mayura reasonably.   
Heimdall was clinging to the doorway and telling Freyr in no uncertain and very graphic terms that he did **not** want a hat.  "Of course you want a hat!" Freyr grunted, prying Heimdall's fingers loose individually.  "They're cute!"   
"Why not?" Loki wanted to know.   
"I think Kaitou-san and Kazumi-kun need some space."   
"I do **not** want a hat," growled Heimdall, clinging more firmly to the doorway.   
"Yes you **do**!" Freyr insisted, pulling on Heimdall's waist so hard he had completely lifted his friend off the ground.   
"...but it's a free floor show," Loki pointed out.   
"Isn't Kaitou-san too old for Kazumi-kun?" asked Mayura, frowning at the scene.   
Heimdall lost his grip on the doorway at that point.  Freyr crashed back into the hat display, still gripping Heimdall's waist.  He sat up quickly, shaking his head to clear it, and snatched two hats out of the air to place on Heimdall's head and on his own.   
"Actually," Loki corrected, "Heimdall's the elder."   
"...I suppose if you take maturity into account..."   
Heimdall removed the hat from his head and stalked out of the store.   
"By about four hundred years," Loki continued.   
Freyr followed with both hats, after hastily paying for them.   
"...oh."  Mayura stared after Freyr and Heimdall.  Her mind decided not to process the comment, and she asked, "How long have they been together?  I mean, with the way Kaitou-san acts towards me, I didn't think he was dating anyone."   
"I think you may be misinterpreting," Loki said.  "They're just friends, as far as I know."   
"Really?" asked Mayura, staring after them.   
"Freyr treats everyone he likes that way."   
"Oh."  Mayura shook herself.  "Let's go sit down and see if I can get that hat off."   
"Food court?" Loki said hopefully.   
"You're buying."   
"...I did figure that."   
"Yes, food court."   
Loki headed that way immediately, moderately content despite the hat.  Mayura kept looking guiltily at the hat as they walked.   
"How did you attach it?" Loki asked.   
"I didn't even know that I did," admitted Mayura.   
Loki bethought himself to reach up and tug on the hat.  The hat did not come free.  "Well, damn," Loki said descriptively.   
Mayura sighed and sat down at one of the tables when they reached the food court.   "What do you want to eat?" Loki asked.   
"I don't know what they have here," said Mayura, looking around at the various eateries.   
"Let's find out before claiming a seat, then.  I'm starving."  Mayura stood back up and headed towards the shops.   
Loki decided that he wanted Chinese from the Panda Panda Buffet.  Mayura decided on the same, since, as she said to Loki, she hadn't ever had it before.  Loki disappointed a bunch more fangirls by buying dim sum for the both of them.   
"Thank you, Loki-kun," chirped Mayura.   
"Don't mention it," Loki said politely, grabbing one of the little metal openwork tables-for-two.   
More fangirls were disappointed by this.   
"Not too bad," Loki judged the food, some fifteen minutes later.   
"I should try to get the hat off," fretted Mayura.   
"Have you thought of a way to?" Loki asked dryly.   
"Try it, Heimdall, it's good!" Freyr urged about six tables away, pushing a plate of yakitori toward Heimdall.   
Mayura looked over at the sound of Freyr's voice.  "Oh, dear.  Kaitou-san got Kazumi-kun to wear the hat."   
Heimdall, who was indeed wearing the hat, glared at Freyr and generally sulked.   
"I wish I had a camera," Loki sniggered.   
Mayura turned her attention back to Loki.  Finally she stood.  "Stand up."   
"Eh?"   
"I have an idea; stand up."   
"...okay."  Loki stood up.   
Mayura placed her hands on Loki's cheeks and moved them up his face, into his hair.  Her fingers went under the brim of the hat, and she lifted it off his head.   
"...." Loki said to this.   
Mayura stood holding the hat in front of her for a few moments before she turned bright red and stared at the floor.  Loki cleared his throat and took the hat, placing it on Mayura's head.  "Why don't you wear it for a while now?"   
Mayura blushed a brighter red if that were possible.  "...um...you said you wanted to get other clothes, I mean, if we're done with lunch..."   
"Well, I **do** need more than one outfit," Loki agreed.   
"So we should get going?"   
"If you're finished eating."   
"I am."   
"Oi, Daidouji," Koutaro-kun smirked as he walked up.  "Does your father know you're out on a date instead of in school?"   
"It's not a date," muttered Mayura.  "And," she added, "he knows that I'm not in school."   
Koutaro folded his arms.  "It looks like a date to me, and I should know, don't you think?"   
Loki chose to remain very still and silent for this discussion.   
"I wouldn't know.  I've never seen you as a guy; you know that," said Mayura.  Loki snickered behind his hand as Koutaro fell over in shock.   
"Why aren't **you** in school, Koutaro-kun?" Mayura asked.   
Koutaro resumed an upright position.  "My father had me excused today.  He has a place of business in this mall he just acquired, and I'm supposed to check it out covertly for him."   
"Oh.  Are you capable of doing things covertly?"   
Koutaro twitched.  "Of course!  And anyway, they don't know who I am, so it's easy."   
"Hm," Mayura still looked doubtful.  "What kind of store is it?"   
"It's a clothing franchise," Koutaro explained.  "Down that way."   
"Oh, exactly the kind of place we're looking for, right, Mayura?" Loki said, dropping an arm lightly around Mayura's waist.      Mayura Looked at Loki.   
"Loki-kun, what are you doing?"   
"Hm?  You don't want me to?"  Loki reluctantly dropped his arm.   
"This isn't a date."   
A trace of disappointment showed on Loki's face.  "If that's what you prefer."   
Mayura turned to Loki with a look of pure innocence.  "If it were a date, you wouldn't have flirted with the shop-girl, so of course it's not."   
"I didn't flirt with anyone."   
"Uh huh."   
"Winking is not flirting, and it got us a discount, anyway," Loki said virtuously. Koutaro stood there with his arms folded, just watching.  He didn't think he liked this guy much.   
"You intentionally made her **faint**, Loki-kun.  That's flirting," retorted Mayura.   
"I can't help it if there are women with weak wills."   
Mayura glared at Loki and turned her back on him, her arms crossed.  "I should leave you to shop by yourself."   
"...what did I say?" Loki blinked.   
"...not a date.  Right," Koutaro said dubiously.   
Mayura stalked off without another word.  "Mayura!" Loki protested.   
Heimdall commented from behind Loki, "So being mortal turns you into a moron?  Remind me never to try it."   
Loki looked over his shoulder.  "Ho.  If it isn't an adorable little kitten," he said with a smirk.   
"At least I didn't just let an angry chaos goddess go wandering on her own," retorted Heimdall.   
"Why don't you just run on back to your daddy, Heimdall?  I'm sure he'll love the hat."   
"I suppose I should leave you alone to wallow in the fact that you were just dumped..."   
"Nice try," Loki congratulated.  "It's not working."   
It was about this time that people started screaming and fleeing the general area.  Heimdall looked behind Loki and said, "Hm.  I don't remember you ever doing that with your powers."  Loki ignored Heimdall and went after Mayura.   
Mayura was sitting on a bench which resembled the eye of a hurricane--nothing was threatening her, but the chaos had her as its central point.  She was, at this point, crying.  "Mayura," Loki said, sitting beside her.  He was understandably disheveled, and he had a few cuts here and there, but nothing major.  "Why are you so upset?" he asked softly.   
"I can't make it **stop**, Loki-kun," sniffled Mayura.   
Loki gathered Mayura up into his lap and rocked her like a child.  "Shh, come on.  Calm down."   
Mayura wrapped her arms around Loki's neck and pressed her face against his shoulder.  The chaos did not immediately stop; the books that were flying through the air gradually got more and more sluggish before drifting to the ground.  "It's all right," Loki soothed again.  He was glad the chaos was easing, but also smart enough not to say so.   
Mayura finally sighed against Loki's shoulder as everything settled down.  People who hadn't run were shakily coming out of their hiding places.   
"Do you feel like shopping some more, or would you rather go home?" Loki questioned softly.   
"I...can we just stay like this for a few minutes?"   
"All right," Loki agreed, resting his cheek on the hat between the ears.   
Mayura finally pulled away a little.  "Are the stores even still open for us to shop here now?" she asked.  She almost managed to sound normal.   
"We can try the next wing over," Loki offered.   
"I hope nothing happened to Koutaro-kun..."   
"...I think he got a concussion, but nothing serious."   
Mayura attempted to look Loki over.  "Are you alright?"   
"I'm fine," Loki lied, as the little bruises and cuts decided to choose that moment to scream at him all at once.   
Mayura hugged Loki impulsively.  "I'm glad."   
"I wouldn't mind having a few more clothes than this, though," Loki said wryly, without releasing Mayura just yet.   
"Then let's keep shopping for a while," said Mayura.  She looked around.  "...somewhere where the books weren't just flying around."   
Loki chuckled.  "Come on, I think there's more stores we haven't been to down that way."  He gestured.   
Mayura rose.  "I wish I could do something about this..."   
"At the moment, there isn't much," Loki said.  "With a bit more training, perhaps, but not now."   
"Un..."   
"We'll make a donation to the mall, if it'll make you feel better."   
"I'm more worried about learning how to make this not happen in the future," replied Mayura.   
"We're working on that, remember?"   
"I know."   
Loki led Mayura toward the other stores, pausing at one point to drag Koutaro out of the middle of the floor and prop him up by a wall.  Mayura walked along with Loki, looking thoughtful.  Finally she said, "I know why the hat got stuck to your head."   
"Eh?" Loki blinked.   
Mayura smiled slightly.  "I was annoyed at you for smiling or winking or whatever you did at the shop-girl."   
".........."   
"I still didn't do it on **purpose**."   
Loki heaved a huge sigh and resigned himself to having no fun until he got his power back.   
"Why are you sulking?"   
"I'm not sulking," Loki denied immediately, so as not to get into more trouble.   
"Alright," said Mayura, sounding suspicious.   
"Really," Loki insisted.   
"Mm.  Does the hat look cute on me?" Mayura asked.   
Loki considered for a moment.  "It does," he decided.   
Mayura smiled.  "I'll keep it then."   
"Oh, good," Loki said with relief.   
"It'll only get glued to your head on special occasions."   
Loki wondered silently if the garbage disposal would be able to handle the hat.   
Mayura was silent all the rest of the way to the next clothing store.  "Is something wrong?" Loki asked as they entered the store.   
"...do you **want** it to be a date?"   
"I wouldn't mind," Loki said softly.   
"I'd like it too," murmured Mayura, leaning against Loki slightly.  Loki put his arm around Mayura's waist again, smiling.  "...this means that I get to choose at least **one** outfit for you."   
"You already did," Loki reminded hastily.   
"That doesn't count," said Mayura.  "You didn't keep the hat."   
"...it looks better on you than on me."   
"I promise the outfit I pick won't be bad."   
"You picked out the hat."   
"But I'm not making you wear it."   
"You still picked it out," Loki pointed out, perusing racks.  "...leather..."   
Mayura turned away from Loki to examine a rack of clothes.  "Hey, this is like what you usually wear."   
"Not exactly," Loki said, sweat-dropping.   
"Well, okay, it's a dress, but it's close," said Mayura.   
"You aren't thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?"   
"...no, I just like the dress."   
"Good, because I don't do drag if I can possibly avoid it."   
"It would probably look pretty on you though," added Mayura.   
"**No**, Mayura," Loki said much more firmly than he had intended.   
Mayura smiled and continued to peruse the clothes.  "If I got something here we could match."   
"Your father would have a heart attack," Loki said dryly, taking a pair of hip-huggers off the rack and looking around for a good shirt.   
"He didn't have a heart attack when I wore the cheongsam the one time."   
"Eh?" Loki questioned, picking up some fishnet consideringly.   
"I think he was upset because the slit was up to here."  Mayura touched a point on her upper thigh.  "But he didn't tell me not to go out."   
Loki dropped the clothes accidentally as he considered that mental image.  "...who were you going out with?" he managed to ask relatively evenly.   
"Koutaro-kun.  He used to be scared of girls, so he asked me because I was his friend," said Mayura cheerfully.   
"I have a hard time imagining that...how old were you both?"  Loki stooped to pick up the dropped clothes.   
"It was a couple years ago..."  Mayura went over to help Loki.   
"I think I'll go try this on," Loki decided, holding the clothes in front of him at about waist level.   
"Oh.  Alright."   
Loki found a clerk who was more than happy to let him into the dressing room.  Said clerk was male...but **not** acting like it.  Mayura snapped her fingers in front of the clerk's face.  "Stop fangirling at my boyfriend."   
"...w-what?" the clerk said dazedly.   
"I **said** for you to stop fangirling at my boyfriend."   
"**...boyfriend!?**" the clerk shrieked in dismay.   
"Yes, boyfriend!"   
"A guy like that, hooked up with a **girl**!?  No way!"   
Mayura gave the clerk a dark look.   
"What, do you use a strap-on or something?" the guy demanded.   
Mayura blinked as something occurred to her and walked out of the store to sit on a bench.  It took a good deal of effort to control her annoyance at the clerk before it actually did anything.   
Loki walked out of the store several minutes later, wearing the hip-hugger leather pants and the fishnet top with a pair of black high-heeled boots he'd purchased earlier in the day.  He had a bag with his other clothes in it, and at least one other shirt.  "I hope I didn't keep you waiting," he said to Mayura.   
"No, I was just out here trying to not hurt the store clerk."   
Loki sniffed disdainfully.  "He's crying in a corner and chewing on his liver," he reported.   
Mayura glanced at Loki.  This took a while, since she ended up stopping to stare.  "...uh, why?" she asked when her brain started working again.   
Loki smirked.  "I didn't wink at him."   
"Should we keep shopping?" Mayura asked, sounding cheerful.   
"By all means.  Two outfits does not a wardrobe make."   
Mayura looked around as she started for the next store.  "More girls are staring now."   
"They can **look** all they want," Loki said, putting his arm around Mayura again.  Mayura blushed and smiled at Loki.   
"You know," Loki remarked after a moment, "it was most unfair of you to tell me about that cheongsam."   
Mayura blinked at Loki.  "Why is that?"   
"I was wearing tight jeans at the time."  Loki's hand slid from Mayura's waist to her hip.  Mayura sputtered and elbowed Loki in the gut.  Loki caught the hand attached to that elbow and kissed the back of it flirtatiously.   
"We're in **public**."   
"So?" Loki queried with a charming grin.   
"So don't **do** that."   
"Don't do what?  Touch your hip or kiss your hand?"   
Mayura had gone back to spluttering and blushing.  Loki chuckled and put his hand somewhere more neutral again.  "Come on, we've got about six more stores to go to." 

Yamino smiled at Mayura and Loki as they walked into the house.  "How did shopping go?"   
Loki looked pale and vaguely green.  "There are more bags...in the cab," he said unsteadily.   
Mayura started to take Loki towards the couch, then paused.  "Where's the stick that we've been using?"  Yamino handed Mayura the stick, and she proceeded to poke the pillows on the sofas while he went to get the bags out of the cab.   
None of the pillows bit--for the moment.   
Mayura sat Loki down on the couch and settled next to him.  Loki buried his face in his hands and moaned pathetically.  "What is it with you and cars?"   
"I don't like them," Loki murmured.  "And they don't like me."   
Mayura rubbed Loki's back.  "I'm sorry."   
"It's not your fault.  I thought it might have had something to do with my power, but I guess not."   
"You just happen to get carsick, then?"   
"Un.  I hate cars," Loki repeated, rubbing his still-churning stomach absently.   
Mayura kissed Loki on the cheek.  "...if it would make you feel better, I could tell you why the pillows were all in your room," she offered.  She was blushing, again.   
"Oh?" Loki prompted, lifting his head curiously.   
"Well...I was thinking about you, and then, I guess it was an illusion, but it was a **really** detailed illusion and, uh, you...stuff but nothing bad and then it went away."   
"Really, now..." Loki breathed with a great deal of interest.  "Just how far did this illusory me get?"   
"Nowhere," said Mayura firmly.  "...well...okay, somewhere, but I still had all my clothes on and your hands didn't get underneath them."   
"So...just to A?"   
"...well, okay, maybe I was on my back, but...huh?"   
Loki abruptly flipped Mayura onto her back on the couch and loomed over her on his hands and knees, grinning a sexy little grin.   
Mayura looked startled, then blushed.  "Loki-kun...!"   
"If an illusion of me can get to A," Loki purred, "I'm honor-bound to try it for myself."   
"But..."  Mayura trailed off.  Her brain wasn't helping, since it wasn't supplying anything that could be used in the way of a protest.  Loki bent his head and kissed Mayura in a way that no mere illusion would ever be able to match. Mayura wrapped her arms around Loki's neck as her brain happily shut down.   
The front door blew off its hinges for the second time in as many days, admitting Freyr.  Again.  "Loki, you bastard!" Freyr screamed in pure, unadulterated outrage, yanking Loki roughly away from Mayura.   
Loki found himself making a hard landing on what remained of the doors, right at Heimdall's feet.   
"Sorry," said Heimdall, actually sounding contrite.  "This is my fault."   
Mayura was off the couch and staring at Freyr.  "What are you doing?"   
"Why," Loki grunted painfully, "am I not surprised."   
Freyr was so full of righteous wrath (which he had not been before seeing the fishnet and leather on top of Yamato Nadeshiko) that he didn't pay any attention to Mayura.  "I won't allow you to defile any more innocent maidens, Loki!"   
"I accidentally told him you were on a date with Mayura," Heimdall explained.   
Mayura attached herself to Freyr's arm.  "Kaitou-san, he was **not** defiling me."   
"I wasn't even planning on it," Loki added.  Freyr clearly did not believe it, and shook his fist at Loki, snapping something in Old Norse.   
Loki sputtered and leapt to his feet.  "Say that again, you little--!"   
Heimdall turned his attention to Mayura.  "Let's see how fast you learn."  He tossed a binding spell around Freyr.  "Do that."   
Mayura blinked, then copied Heimdall's motion...and the binding spell.  "....wow!  I did something on the first try!"   
"...sort of," Loki said dryly, discovering that he could not move.   
Mayura face-faulted.  "...gomen..."   
Loki gave Heimdall a dirty look.  "You intended this to happen," he accused.   
"I didn't think she'd be able to do it," said Heimdall, looking amused and interested.   
"Teach her how to undo it.  **Now**," Loki ordered Heimdall in a borderline psychotic voice.   
Heimdall shrugged and turned to Mayura again.  "All you have to do is untie him.  Make sure not to confuse 'untie' with 'undress'--that could be interesting with the door missing."   
Mayura, predictably, collapsed into sputtering.  Loki bit Heimdall viciously.  Heimdall yelped.  Mayura frowned.  "Loki-kun, I'm not sure if I should untie you if you're acting like that."   
"I wouldn't be forced into this kind of behavior if I weren't trapped in a binding spell!" Loki retorted acidly.   
Heimdall put a good bit of distance between himself and Loki.  He glanced at Mayura.  "It's safer for you if you simply vanish the bindings.  If you can't, you have to mentally untie them."   
Mayura attempted to do so, with little success.   
Loki's eyes narrowed as they fixed on Heimdall, holding a look that promised a great deal of agony at some point in the future.  He never had dealt well with having his liaisons interrupted.   
Mayura closed her eyes and smiled with relief as she felt the bindings start to come undone.   Loki was wise enough not to spring at Heimdall, but the look in his eyes didn't change.   
Freyr coughed politely; he, too, wished to be freed.  Heimdall gave Freyr a Look.  "Are you rational now?"   
"Freyr is **always** rational," Freyr responded sulkily.   
"Rational in the sense of not trying to murder Loki."   
Freyr's look suggested not.   
"You know, Heimdall, for some reason, I just never thought I'd hear **you** say that," Loki commented.   
"I'm perfectly rational about wanting to kill you," said Heimdall.  "I wouldn't kill you for doing something like dating someone who liked you already, no matter how I felt about that person.  And I'm not letting you go," Heimdall added to Freyr.   
"Besides," said Mayura, sounding confused, "Weren't Kaitou-san and Kazumi-kun on a date earlier?"   
A look of absolute horror crossed Freyr's face.  "Date **Heimdall**!?" he squawked.   
"...well, you get along really well, and you live together, and you act like you're married..."   
"We do **not**!" protested Heimdall.   
"You go **shopping** together," Loki pointed out with a smirk.   
"The only thing I can think of more horrible than that would be dating Loki!" Freyr shuddered.   
"You know, that brings back memories," Loki said dryly.   
"...I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't **hear** you!" Freyr caroled at the top of his lungs.  He would have covered his ears had he been able.   
Heimdall, by this time, was working his way through annoyance to actual anger.     
Mayura frowned thoughtfully.  "Hmmm..."  She gestured.  "...oh, that doesn't look like I wanted it to."   
Loki made his annoyance quite eloquently clear despite his lack of a voice.   
"I'm sorry!" sniffled Mayura.  She did not quite start to sob.   
Loki sighed silently and pulled Mayura into his arms yet again.  It was fortunate, he reflected, that he liked the way she felt there.  He found this thought so appealing that he kissed Mayura for it.  Mayura blinked, then relaxed into the kiss, wrapping her arms around Loki's neck again.  She absently pulled away the silence spell.   
Freyr's voice returned in the middle of a particularly vile curse--aimed at Loki, of course.  Heimdall was snickering and continued to do so when he got his voice back.   
Fortunately for Freyr's sake, Loki found kissing Mayura to be more interesting than the insults--particularly as he had just begun to do things with his tongue.   
Heimdall sighed and dragged Freyr towards the door.  This was a very impressive sight.   
Mayura, of course, missed it, since clinging to Loki and enjoying what he was doing with his tongue was much more important at the moment.  Freyr kicked his feet like a naughty child and spat a few of those deadly insults at Heimdall.   
"We have to get Gullinbrusti from the mall and neither of them knows we exist right now.  Stop whining."   
"He's going to defile Yamato Nadeshiko!" Freyr protested.   
"Only if she wants to be," retorted Heimdall.   
Freyr sputtered and turned green--the envious sort.  Heimdall grumbled about idiots as he dragged Freyr off.   
Loki failed to note that they had gone.  Mayura snuggled closer to Loki.  Loki's hands started wandering under Mayura's clothes.  In front of the open doorway.   
It did occur to Mayura, vaguely, that there was a reason she shouldn't be doing this.  When she heard Yamino picking up the remains of the door, she jerked away from Loki, blushing.   Loki made a mindless noise of protest, his brain having long since turned over operations to his libido and retired for the day.   
Mayura kicked him lightly.  "Public!  Bad!" she managed.   
"...why?" Loki demanded in a whiny voice.   
"...because!"   
Loki whined again.  And then was attacked by a pillow imp. 

It was a fairly quiet couple of days after that.  Mostly because Mayura was twitchy and pushed Loki away half the time he got close to her, despite the fact that she knew it bothered him.   This time when Mayura started to push him away, Loki pulled her back into his arms.  "Why are you doing this, Mayura?" he demanded.   
Mayura looked away.  "Because...I feel my power doing something and I don't want to hurt anything."   
Loki made an annoyed sound.  "You can't be so weak-willed!"   
"**Weak-willed?**  What I feel for you is the most intense thing I've felt in my life!  You go out of your way to make me lose control, and then you **blame** me when I say I'm afraid of that?"   
"You either control the power, or it controls you--and so far, **you** haven't been the one in control!" Loki snapped with just enough truth to bite.   
"So why is it that **you** can't **wait** until I do?" snapped Mayura.   
"Because I'd rather not walk into a room somewhere and see an illusion of myself doing what I'd rather be doing!" Loki retorted.   
Mayura jerked violently away from Loki.  "Leave me alone."   
Loki let her go.  "Fine, if that's the way you want it, I will!"    
Mayura stalked out of the room.   
As Mayura left, Freya waltzed in the front door.  She stopped to stare.  "Loki?"   
Loki had seated himself on the couch in a huff, crossing his legs and folding his arms across his chest.  Today he wore indecently tight jeans, the boots he'd taken a real liking to, and a peasant-style blouse that had been in the women's section at the store but didn't look it.  "Freya," he greeted with a nod.   
Freya happily threw herself at Loki with all the force she could muster.  Loki spotted a mouth gaping on a pillow that Freya was about to slam her knee down on.  He snatched it up and whacked it against the coffee table four or five times.   
The result of this was Freya tumbling onto the couch and laying there, disoriented, for a moment.  "..."   
"...be careful where you sit; we have an infestation of pillow imps," Loki warned his guest.   
Freya blinked at Loki.  "...you what?"   
Loki held the KO'd pillow up.  "Pillow imps.  They bite."   
Freya turned herself so that she was actually sitting instead of sprawled.  "How...?"   
"Loki-kuuuuuuuuuun!" came Mayura's wail from elsewhere in the house, "There's something big and ugly in the backyard, and it's not listening to me!"   
"..." said Freya.   
"Coming!" Loki called back.  "Excuse me a moment, Freya, this is important."  He left the room rapidly.   
Freya stared after Loki for a moment, then followed.   
Just as Loki reached the top of the back stairs, something struck the back of the house hard enough to make the whole building shake.  Loki's feet dropped out from under him, and he slid all the way down on his backside.  "Ittetete..." he winced.   
It probably didn't help that Freya pitched down the stairs to land on top of him.   
"Freya," Loki said in a pained voice.  "Would you mind getting off of me?  Preferably before my house is smashed to pieces?"   
The crash had brought Thor running as well.  He stopped on the stairs and coughed politely as Freya pulled herself off of Loki.  Loki loftily ignored this and got up, continuing on to the back door.  "...a troll."  He took several steps back and gestured for Thor to go first.  "I believe this is your cue, Narukami-kun."   
Thor headed outside, commenting, "You **always** ask me to deal with your relatives..."   
"That's what I'm paying you for!" Loki retorted.   
"Hai, hai."   
Freya looked very confused by this time.  "...what's going on?"   
"It's a long story.  Better stand back so you don't get splattered," Loki said absently, looking around for Mayura.   
Thor was back a few moments later.  "Boring.  Nothing like being at home."   
"Mayura?" Loki called anxiously.   
Mayura dashed into the house after Thor and decided to cling to Freya and cry.  Freya's confusion increased.  Loki twitched visibly.   
Freya poked Mayura, who was sobbing into her chest.  "Oi..."   
"Mayura," Loki said after a brief consideration, "this is definitely **not** your fault."   
"Eh?"   
"You didn't summon it."   
"...okay.   
"As a matter of fact," Loki said thoughtfully, "I'm surprised it didn't show up earlier."   
Mayura sighed.  "Can you be slightly less vague?"   
"...must I?"   
"Yes."   
"...it wanted to eat me."   
"...why?"   
"Be...cause I'm Odin's blood-brother, and they've never really forgiven me for that."   
Mayura blinked.  "I'm sorry, what?"   
"Will **someone** explain what's going on here to me?" demanded Freya.   
Loki grimaced.  "Mayura has my power at present," he said briefly to Freya.  Then he turned back to Mayura.  "Odin is Aesir, like Narukami-kun and Heimdall.  Freya and Freyr are Vanir; the Vanir are somewhat distantly related to the Aesir.  I, on the other hand, am jotun.   
"Jotun and Aesir have had this eternal enmity thing going on since Odin killed the Great Fa...Ymir.  Trolls are a type of jotun.  You could say it was my...cousin," Loki allowed reluctantly.  "Distant cousin.  **Quite** distant."   
"...And it wanted to kill you," said Mayura.   
"Eat," Loki corrected.   
"Loki is an unusual child of the 'Great Father,'" commented Thor pointedly.  "As you can see."   
Loki gave Thor an annoyed look.  "I don't pick on **your** childhood speech habits, do I?  No, I do not!" he sniffed.   
"Sure you do.  You pick on anything when it suits you."   
Loki ignored this loftily.  "In any case," Loki continued to Mayura, "while it probably would kill me right now, I've been eaten before--with some unusual side effects on occasion."  He glanced over his shoulder at Yamino, who was puttering in the kitchen.   
Mayura blinked, then decided she didn't want to know.  Freya finally managed to say, "...what do you mean, she has your power?"   
"I mean exactly what I said, Freya.  Mayura has my power at the moment."  Loki grimaced.  "I'm handicapped."   
"..." said Freya.  She glared at Mayura, who was oblivious, still stuck several lines back in the conversation.   
"It really wanted to kill you?" she asked again, dumbly.   
"There are a lot of things like that out there right now," Loki divulged, giving Freya an irritable look.   
All the windows and doors to the outside abruptly disappeared into wall.  Mayura said something markedly unladylike.   
"...what happened this time?" Loki demanded.   
"...I'm a little worried about you," admitted Mayura.  "...they're really gone this time," she added.   
Thor made an annoyed sound.  "Don't worry, I can handle anyone who comes along."  In a softer voice he added, "You really don't have to be worried."   
"He's right," Loki sighed.  "You don't have to be worried about me.  I've spent several millennia protecting myself against things a lot bigger, uglier, and stupider than I am."   
"But you're crippled right now!"   
"I **do** still have my wits; I'm not senile!" Loki snapped defensively.   
"Besides," added Freya, staring icily at Mayura, "**I'm** staying to protect him."   
"Oh," said Mayura.  She closed her eyes for a moment.  "This is harder...how do I do this, Loki-kun?"   
Loki eyed Freya.  He was going to have to tell her her possessiveness was unwarranted and unacceptable.  That was **not** going to be fun.   
Mayura made an annoyed sound and the doors and windows reappeared.  "There," she said with finality.  There was a pause, during which Mayura Looked at Freya for a moment.  Mayura then took care of the need to tell Freya that her interest was unwarranted and unacceptable…by glomping Loki and kissing him.   
Oh well, Loki decided silently, you only live once.  He wrapped his arms around Mayura and kissed her back enthusiastically.   
Freya was actually speechless for a few moments.  Before she starting shrieking words that it would have horrified Freyr to know that she knew.  Mayura ignored this.  Loki tuned out quite a bit, but one finally caught his attention, and he broke off the kiss to demand incredulously, "Do you even know what that **means**?"   
Freya stopped shrieking as soon as Loki stopped kissing Mayura.  She did, however, continue to be enraged.  "You...you..."   
Mayura turned to Freya.  "I'm sorry, Freya-san, but I couldn"t think of another way that you would listen to…"   
"............" said Freya.   
"Well, it's certainly the most direct way," Loki observed thoughtfully.   
"I thought that you were a lot like Kaitou-san," Mayura added.   
"...." said Freya again.   
"They **are** siblings."   
Freya blinked a few times, then burst into tears and ran out the back door.  Loki sighed sadly.  Mayura leaned against him.  "...will she be alright?" she asked softly.   
"I hope so," Loki said just as softly.  "I never wanted to hurt her...but..."   
"You don't love her, and you can't help that," murmured Mayura.   
Loki buried his face in Mayura's hair.  "Un..." he agreed.  Mayura stroked his hair.  Thor blinked, then quietly moved to elsewhere in the house. 

It wasn't long after that that Thor went to seek Yamino out.  "Oi, Megane, I'm taking off."   
Yamino, who had been rearranging the now-less-carnivorous pillows in Loki's study, stopped to look at Thor.  "Does Loki-sama know?"   
Thor shrugged and sighed.  "Yeah, talked it over with him, and decided that my job would be easier if I just made sure his 'cousins' didn't make it to town at all.  Which'll keep me away 'til he's back to normal or until they get sense, whichever comes first."   
Yamino smiled slightly.  "And you wanted me to pack you something to take?"   
"…well…"  Thor had the grace to look embarrassed.  "Yeah, kinda, since I won't really be…I mean, Loki's giving me cash, but."   
"I'll go get something for you, then," said Yamino.    
Thor smiled.  "Thanks." 

"Aren't you ready to go yet, Mayura?" Loki demanded impatiently.  For him it had been easy--throw on a pair of Speedos under a pair of shorts and a tee shirt, some sandals and a towel, and he was ready.  Mayura, on the other hand, was taking forever!   
"I'm ready!" called Mayura.  She came down the stairs in white sundress (one could see her light pink bathing suit underneath) and carrying a bag.   
"Finally," Loki muttered under his breath.   
"You look pretty," said Mayura.   
Loki was impatient enough to leave to ignore that.  "Come on, the cab is here, and I want to get that part over with."  Mayura blinked at Loki and walked past him out to the cab.  The ex-god checked his pocket to be sure he still had the bottle of Dramamine, then steeled himself and got into the cab next to Mayura.   
Mayura was settled in happily.  She was even humming.  True, she was humming something that sounded suspiciously like "The Cockatrice is a Bluebird" but these things can't be helped.   
"...where did you hear that song?"   
"Kaitou-san sang it once.  Everyone else in the area started running away."   
"Wise of them," Loki murmured.   
"I felt sorry for him."   
"...you wouldn't by any chance be blessedly tone deaf, would you?"   
"No, just polite."   
"Politeness only goes so far, Mayura."   
"I like Kaitou-san."   
"......"   
"He's a very sweet person, usually."   
"...whatever," Loki said sulkily, folding his arms.   
Mayura gave Loki a sideways glance.  "You're sulking again."   
"I am not," Loki sulked.   
"Yes you are."   
"I am **not**!"   
Mayura just smiled.  Loki sulked some more.   
Mayura looked out the cab window.  They were already approaching the beach, to Loki's relief.  He reluctantly let go of his sulk and asked, "Should we rent lockers?"   
Mayura shrugged.  "I don't usually, but we can."   
"It's been about..." Loki considered.  "Thirty or so years since the last time I was at the beach.  I'm following your lead."   
"Oh.  Well, come on then."  Mayura headed straight towards the beach once they were out of the cab.   
"I was going to college in America at the time," Loki commented, patting Mayura's ass blandly.   
Mayura swatted at his hand absently.  "America?   When was that?"   
"About thirty years ago, as I said," Loki responded, blatantly ogling a passing female, who promptly orgasmed and then fainted into her boyfriend's arms.   
Mayura elbowed him lightly.   
"What?" Loki said all too innocently.   
"You're flirting again," complained Mayura.   
"It's nothing," Loki dismissed.   
"Alright," said Mayura easily.  Loki did not, however, stop ogling women.  And a few men.  Mayura attempted to ignore it.  And headed for the water.   
Loki found a convenient spot and dropped his towel.  'Convenient' meaning 'surrounded by the most nubile young women who drooled to watch him take off his shirt and shorts.'  Mayura walked by the water for a few minutes, then returned to look possessive and take off the sundress.  "You should put on some sunblock or you'll burn," she commented.   
"I didn't bring any," Loki shrugged.   
Mayura handed him the tube she'd been using on herself.  Loki was no longer in place to take it.  Instead, he was accepting a tube from a pair of blushing girls in string bikinis--and applying it on them.   
Mayura glowered after Loki, then put the tube down and headed for the water.  Stalked towards the water, actually, looking rather annoyed.   
Loki was, by the time she returned, handing out phone numbers.  Mayura grabbed Loki's arm and dragged him away from the girls, to a relatively unpopulated area.  She was twitching.  A lot.   
"What did you do that for?" Loki demanded in an irritated voice.  "I was having fun!"   
"What are you **doing**?" snapped Mayura.   
"Having a good time.  Isn't that what we came here to do?"   
"We came here to have a good time **together**."   
"Where's that in the contract?" Loki demanded sulkily.   
"**You** were the one who said that!"   
Loki ogled a passing couple.  "Hm?  What did you say?"   
Mayura slapped Loki hard across the face.  Loki's head turned with the force of the blow.  "Congratulations," he murmured in a completely different tone than before.   
"...eh?"   
"Did you notice that nothing else happened?" Loki asked seriously, turning his head to look at Mayura again.  He rubbed the red mark on his cheek absently.   
Mayura looked around.  "...nothing else...you were testing me?"   
"It was the only way I could think of that you wouldn't be expecting," Loki admitted apologetically.   
"..." said Mayura.  Her eyes narrowed.  "Whose number were you really giving out then?"   
"Heimdall's," Loki shrugged.   
"Those poor girls..."   
"...it was either his or your father's.  With any luck, Freyr will answer for him."   
"Poor Kaitou-san," sighed Mayura.   
"...at least it **is** a chance for him to talk to other girls?" Loki offered.   
Mayura gave Loki a sideways glance.  "I still think there's something there with Kazumi-kun."   
"I doubt it.  Freyr doesn't do kids."   
"Kazumi-kun will be very unhappy for the next few years, then."   
"Doubtful."   
"Hm?"   
"Freyr's attention span isn't that long," Loki said dryly.   
"...what do you mean?"   
"The longest crush he's ever had lasted thirteen months.  The shortest lasted one week and three days."   
"Oh."  Mayura frowned.  "That's a very short time for someone who lives thousands of years."   
"Exactly my point."   
"Who did he have a crush on for so short a time?"   
"...me," Loki admitted wryly.   
"..."   
"He was fourteen or so.  It was vaguely cute at the time."   
"........."   
"...what?"   
"I can't imagine you and Kaitou-san..."   
"We dated for about two days.  And then we both swore solemn oaths to never, ever, ever, **ever** try that again."   
"Do I want to know?"   
"Probably not," Loki admitted.  "It involved sex and a great deal of pain on my part."   
"..."   
"...he's clumsy around his crushes, and it was a lot worse when he was fourteen than it is today."   
"...oh."   
"...what's the matter?" Loki asked.   
"If Kaitou-san were on top of Loki-kun and he didn't know what he was doing, that must have hurt, is all."   
"....um," Loki said, trying not to twitch.  "He wasn't on top."   
"...really?"   
Loki lost the battle.  "Yes, really."   
Mayura looked away.  "Sorry!  It's just...with you and Kaitou-san..."   
"What about it?" Loki wanted to know.  The twitching was under control again...for the moment.   
"Well, between you and him...um...I'm going to be quiet now."   
"......."   
Mayura, as she had said she would, remained quiet.  Loki abruptly pinned Mayura to the wall of the arcade they stood next to and kissed her fiercely.  It was a very demanding, toe-curling kind of kiss, and not the least bit passive.  At all.   
The part of Mayura's brain that was still functioning after the first few seconds wondered where this was coming from, though it didn't protest.   Loki finally raised his head.  "I don't do uke if I can avoid it," he murmured in Mayura's ear.   
Mayura blinked at him.  It was clear that she wasn't ready to process words again yet.  Loki sprinkled a few kisses up and down Mayura's neck, then reluctantly drew away.  Mayura took a few moments to regain her balance.  "Um," she said.   
Loki sighed.  "If we don't stop here, we'll be arrested for indecent exposure," he said regretfully.   
Mayura muttered something.   
"Hm?"   
"You'reprettyclosetoitalready."   
Loki grinned.  "Sou da na..."   
Mayura blushed.   
"I thought you might like the bathing suit," Loki said innocently.   
"...it's nice."   
"So is yours," Loki said with a leer.   
"Hmm," said Mayura doubtfully.   
"Of course, you'd look just as good in a flour sack, and even better in nothing at all," Loki added.   
Mayura turned bright red and sputtered.  Loki chuckled and put an arm around her waist again.  "Come on, let's go back before our towels and stuff get stolen."   
Mayura leaned against Loki, smiling. 

**To Be Continued...**


	3. Chapter 3: Idiots

Daidouji Mayura: Chaos Goddess  
Chapter 3:  Idiots  
By Lady Crysiana and Yasha-hime

  
Freyr stumbled into the kitchen, swaying like there was a heavy wind, as Heimdall hung up the phone.  Again.  Freyr was a royal mess--shirtless, bare-foot, with wild hair, and his pants looked like he'd slept in them for days.  (Which he had.)  He was also clearly drunk.  Again.  Or still.   
Heimdall eyed him for a long moment.  Heimdall's entire posture indicated that he was highly annoyed by something and that someone would soon pay for that annoyance if he had any say in the matter, but it receded somewhat as he looked at Freyr.  "What the hell is wrong with you?"   
"Freyr," the Vanir announced with drunken gravity, "is out of whiskey."   
Heimdall thought that that was probably all to the good, considering.  He sniffed.  "And?"    
Freyr stumbled past his roommate and started rooting through cabinets and drawers in search of a substitute.  He mumbled to himself as he did so.   
Heimdall watched him for a few moments before pulling him away from the drawer he was searching.  "There isn't any more in the house."   
Freyr blinked stupidly at Heimdall.  "...why not?" he asked finally.   
"My guess would be that you drank all the alcohol here."   
"...but I want more!"   
"Too bad."   
Freyr whined loudly.   
"Why are you moping, anyway?"   
"Yamato Nadeshiko is...with Loki--" Freyr sulked.   
"They've gotten that far?"   
"Freya-chan saw it," Freyr pouted.   
"Don't you have anything better to do than mope around the house drinking?"   
Freyr thought about this.  For a long time, even for a drunken Freyr.  "No," he decided finally.   
"Then mope somewhere that's not near me."   
"Meaniiiiiiiiiiie!" Freyr wailed.   
Heimdall rolled his eyes.  "How will my being around help you in any way?"   
Freyr mumbled to himself and stared at his hands as he pushed his forefingers together.  Heimdall gave Freyr a Look.  "When you figure something out, I'll be in the living room."   
Freyr attached himself to Heimdall's waist when the other god turned around.  Heimdall yelped.  "What are you doing?"   
"...tripped," Freyr mumbled in explanation.   
"..." said Heimdall.  It managed to be suspicious, even so.   
Freyr dragged himself up to drape himself over Heimdall's shoulders--which was where he'd been aiming for.  Heimdall blinked.  Given how Freyr was draped over him, edging away would not help.   
Freyr pressed several kisses against Heimdall's neck.  "Pretty Heimdall," he mumbled unsteadily.   
Heimdall blinked and attempted to twist so he could look at Freyr.  "You're more drunk than I thought."   
"Mmm..." Freyr said, kissing Heimdall's neck again.  He did not seem to realize--or have a problem with--the fact that he had to be on his knees to do it.   
Heimdall found himself melting against Freyr and attempted to pull away.  "Freyr..."   
"Nnnn!" Freyr protested, pulling him back.   
Heimdall glowered for a moment, then made a face and twisted so that he could press his mouth to Freyr's.  Freyr proved to be a very good kisser, even drunk.  (He had, at least, learned that much from Loki when he was fourteen.)  His skills, unfortunately, were somewhat marred by the fact that his mouth tasted like a distillery.   
Heimdall pulled away again, grimacing.  "Remind me never to give you pity sex when you go on a bender again."   
"....heeeeeyyyy..!" Freyr whined.   
Heimdall sighed and stroked Freyr's hair.  "You're annoying."   
"'m **not**!" Freyr protested, laying his head on Heimdall's shoulder.  That felt good...   
"Not all the time," Heimdall amended, continuing to pet Freyr.  Freyr snuggled up, like a cat, and went to sleep.   
Heimdall sighed and managed to get Freyr over to the couch.  "Idiot."  Freyr began to snore.  Heimdall's lips twitched up, almost into a smile.  "Complete idiot." 

Loki was a nice bright red as he picked his way very carefully down the stairs.  Lobster red.  All over.  All he wore, too, was a pair of fairly loose, thin boxers.  Mayura was holding a gallon container of aloe vera.  "This will help," she said, holding it up.  She did not say 'I told you so' because it managed to pulse from every fiber of her being.   
"...help?  There's something that can help?"   
"Not much, but yes," said Mayura.  She got some aloe on her hand and gently applied it to Loki's back.   
Loki squeaked breathlessly in pain.  "Sorry," said Mayura softly.   
"...this hurts," Loki complained.  "How long does it take to go away?"   
"Only a few days," said Mayura cheerfully.   
"...few...days...?"   
"Mmhm."   
"...........!"   
"...what?"   
"...that's forever!" Loki complained.   
"Not really, no," said Mayura.   
"It's too long!" Loki whined.   
"Too bad.  You should have used sunblock."   
"This has never happened before!"   
"You're not a god right now!"   
Loki made an annoyed and frustrated sound.  Mayura sighed.  "It'll go away with time."   
"That takes too long," Loki whined.   
"It's the only option you have," replied Mayura.   
Loki sulked.  Visibly.  Mayura kissed the back of Loki's head.  Loki yelped; even his scalp was sunburned.   
Mayura blinked.  "...you're impressive."   
"...what?"   
"I've never seen anyone this sunburned before."   
"......"  Loki sulked some more.   
"At least you were wearing the speedo, so uh, that part of you wasn't burned," said Mayura.   
"...I don't even want to **think** about that concept, thank you very much."   
"It happened to Koutaro-kun once," Mayura supplied.   
"...it did?"   
"Mmhm."   
"How?"   
"I never asked him that."   
Loki immediately resolved to do so.   
"It seemed like an impolite thing to ask about."   
"Sou ka?  I'll risk being impolite, then."   
"You and Koutaro-kun posture at each other a lot."   
"Do we?" Loki murmured disinterestedly.   
"Yes," said Mayura.  "It's cute."   
"...ne, Mayura?"   
"...what?"   
"How do you know Kou-chan scorched his bits?"   
"We were talking about sunburns and he said the most painful was there and we asked how he knew and he got embarrassed and ran off."   
"...we?" Loki asked curiously.   
"Haruto-kun and me."   
"Oh," Loki said.  He had no idea who Haruto was, but it didn't really matter.  "Speaking of Kou-chan, though..."   
"Hm?"   
"You're going back to school tomorrow."   
"What?!  Why?"   
"Because you need an education," Loki said as firmly as any father would.   
Mayura looked put out.  "But...school."   
"I'll write you a doctor's note," Loki said.  "You have control of the power now, you'll be fine."   
Mayura looked thoughtful now.  "Ne, Loki, you mentioned that you went to college in America..."   
"I did," Loki confirmed, picking up a pen and some paper and scrawling a note with his signature at the bottom.   
"Eh?  What's your signature?" asked Mayura, craning over to look at the note.   
Loki shrugged.  "My degree is under the name 'Dr. Elle Lauffeysdatter,'" he explained.   
"...Elle?"   
"It was easy to remember," Loki said.   
Mayura seemed willing to let several questions go in favor of asking another.  "What was college like?"   
Loki smiled reminiscently.  "I had a great time.  I got to burn my bra three times.  ...the Volkswagen, though, was **not** as comfortable as I was told it would be."   
"......" said Mayura.   
"...what?"   
"...bra?"   
"I went to college as a woman," Loki explained with a small grin.   
"...how?"   
"Shape-shifting," Loki shrugged.  "My power wasn't sealed, back then..."   
"Does that mean I could change myself?"   
"...theoretically, yes."   
"There's a 'but' there, right?"   
"It takes a **lot** of practice."   
"Oh.  You'll probably have your powers back by the time I could even start to learn, then."   
"Pretty much," Loki agreed.    
Mayura looked disappointed.    
"....ow..."   
"?"   
"...it hurts again!" Loki complained, mildly outraged.   
"...yes.  It does that."   
"........"   
"...ne, Loki..."   
"Hm?"   
"You've dated people before, right?"   
"...you could say that," Loki said dryly.   
"A lot of people?"   
"Over the past three millennia?  Yes."   
"Hm."   
"Why?"   
"Just wondering."   
"....why were you wondering?"   
"I just...was."   
Loki eyed Mayura doubtfully.  Mayura looked away.  "Mayura..." Loki sighed, making an abortive gesture to reach out to her.  That he stopped was clearly due to the fact that moving was not a good thing with that kind of sunburn.  "Tell me what's wrong?"   
"It's just that...you've been with so many people, and they were probably very special people..."   
"Not really," Loki denied thoughtfully.   
"Nn."   
"Most of them weren't particularly special, at least not to me," Loki shrugged.  "The ones who were...Skuld...Angorboda...um...I guess I probably ought to count Odin because he was the first...but that's about it."   
"...what about me?"   
"Mmm..."  Loki was quiet for a moment.  "I don't think I can rank you in either group," he decided finally.   
Mayura blinked.   
"Special," Loki purred sensually, "doesn't even come close."   
"Oh," said Mayura.  She blushed nearly as red as Loki's sunburn.  Loki started to say something, then chickened out.  Mayura didn't notice, off in a happy world of her own.  So much so that she was generating pastel sparklies. 

Heimdall was dozing when the shift happened.  Given that one tends to notice when one resumes one's normal form, sleep didn't last long after that.  The resounding "**Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?**" was most un-Heimdall-like.   
The sound woke Freyr, who was sleeping off a hangover at the time.  On Heimdall's floor, as he had crawled there while Heimdall slept.  "....itte..." he whined plaintively.   
"...why are you on my floor?"   
"...not so loud..." Freyr said in an agonized whisper.   
"..." said Heimdall.   
Freyr whimpered again.  Heimdall sighed and knelt down next to him silently.  He absently started petting Freyr's hair again.  "Nnng..." Freyr sighed.  "Feels nice..."   
"Idiot," whispered Heimdall.   
"...needa drink," Freyr whimpered.   
"No, you don't," snapped Heimdall.   
"Do tooooo!" Freyr whined.   
"Freyr," said Heimdall softly, "just stay here until you're sober, alright?"   
"...nnnn...!" Freyr whined.   
Heimdall curled his body around Freyr's.  "Just stay."   
Freyr gave up and remained silent for a long moment.  "...you got bigger," he finally noticed.   
"I'll have to find out who to thank later."   
"Mmf," Freyr responded, shuddering as he pressed his face against the nearest area of skin, his fingers digging into Heimdall's flesh with bruising pressure as the demons of withdrawal tormented him anew.  Heimdall winced, but didn't bat Freyr away.  He was rather relieved that his shoulder had been closest to Freyr at the moment.   
Freyr whined in the back of his throat; withdrawal damned well **hurt**!  Heimdall sighed and freed up an arm to begin petting Freyr again.   
It seemed like--and probably was--hours before Freyr's withdrawal began to ease...for now.  Heimdall nuzzled the back of Freyr's head gently.   
"....Heimdall?" Freyr queried after a moment.   
"What?"   
"...why do you keep doing things like that?"   
"...like what?"   
"...cuddling," Freyr chose as a good word to describe it.  "And did you actually--?"  He broke off.   
Heimdall pulled away from Freyr.  "Did I actually what?" he ground out.   
"....."  Freyr blinked.  "Um.  No...never mind, you wouldn't do something like that."   
"**What?**"   
"Nothing.  Nothing!" Freyr insisted.  "I must have been hallucinating.  Or passed out."   
"...tell me anyway."   
Freyr mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like the word "kiss," recognizing the signs that Heimdall was about to blow his top.   
Heimdall looked at Freyr consideringly for a moment.  "No, that really happened."   
"....!"  Freyr fell over in shock.  This was especially impressive given his already-prone position.   
"You were very drunk."   
"...............I must have been..."  Freyr contemplated how much drink it must have taken to even **think** of such a suicidal act.   
"If your mouth hadn't tasted like a distillery, it wouldn't have been a bad kiss."   
".....!" Freyr said again.   
"I'm not upset about it."   
That just broke Freyr's brain entirely, and he went cross-eyed and then swirly-eyed as he contemplated it a bit too long.   
"What is wrong with you **now**?"   
No answer.  Still swirly-eyed.  Heimdall kicked Freyr lightly.  Nothing.   
Heimdall snuggled up to Freyr and kissed his neck.  Freyr's brain needed too extensive repairs to be rebooted immediately.  However, his libido offered to step in and fill the gap, and since there was no other operating system available, his body allowed this.   
He promptly rolled over on top of Heimdall and kissed him.  Heimdall returned the kiss almost violently.    
A few moments after the sex, Heimdall said, "Are you going to get off me or not?"  Freyr reluctantly rolled to one side.  Heimdall curled against him.  Freyr made a pleased noise and cuddled.   
"You seem to be more cheerful."   
"Sex does that," Freyr explained seriously.   
"Really.  I'll have to try it more often."   
Freyr stretched, cat-like.  "It's one thing I miss about Asgard.  It's too dangerous here."   
"And the selection of people it's not dangerous with is small," added Heimdall.   
"Mmm," Freyr agreed.   
"I must be useful for you, then," said Heimdall neutrally.   
"**You** started it," Freyr pointed out immediately.  He wasn't out there enough to miss **that**!   
Heimdall shrugged.  "You're annoying when you mope."  Freyr turned on his side, putting his back to Heimdall, and sulked.  Heimdall leaned against Freyr's back.  "You do feel better, somewhat?"   
"Hmph!" Freyr snorted, lower lip jutting out   
Heimdall leaned over to suck on Freyr's lower lip.   
"...!" Freyr said.   
Heimdall pulled back.  "I like you."   
Freyr blinked dumbly.  His brain, so recently repaired, would now have to be sent back to the factory for refurbishment or, possibly, replacement.   
"So stop being such a moron and drinking yourself more stupid than you usually are."   
"......................" Freyr said.   
"What?"   
Freyr's brain was so broken that he literally could do nothing.  Heimdall sighed and rolled over. 

**To Be Continued...**


	4. Chapter 4: Male Posturing

Daidouji Mayura: Chaos Goddess  
Chapter 4:  Male Posturing  
By Lady Crysiana and Yasha-hime

  
"You're going to have to go to school like that," Loki said without a trace of sympathy.  He was still bright pink all over, and he had begun to peel in large areas. And he'd told Mayura not to mess around with shapeshifting...  
Mayura touched the cat-ears.  "...maybe I can get more people to join the mystery club like this..."   
"They'll probably think it's a costume," Loki warned.   
"...and?"   
"What's mysterious about a costume?  ...other than them wondering what H store you bought it at..."   
"Koutaro-kun's family has a store a few streets away from school," said Mayura cheerfully.   
"An H store?" Loki asked with great interest.   
"Mmhm.  I knew they had that one because he took me there when we were dating."   
"....you what?"   
"...went to the store."   
"An H store.  With Kakinouichi Koutaro."   
"We didn't **buy** anything."   
Loki plucked a nice heavy umbrella out of the umbrella stand next to the door and marched outside in his pajama bottoms.   
"...Loki-kun?"   
"I'm going to beat his skull in!" Loki gritted out.   
"Oh.  If you were going to beat his skull in for that, I shouldn't tell...um."   
"Tell what?" Loki demanded fiercely.   
"Nothing!  Nothing happened!  Less happened then with me and the illusion of you!"   
Loki did not appear to be convinced.   
"Really," said Mayura sincerely.  "But you would have misinterpreted it."   
"How so?" Loki demanded.   
"Well, I was thinking that I shouldn't tell you how he took me out in his parents' car to out by the house by the lake."   
"....he **what**!?"   
"We didn't get anywhere!  It was like making out with my brother and I said that!"   
"I'll kill him anyway!  You can't have been more than fourteen!"   
"I know the binding spell and if I **must** use it on you, I will."  Mayura glared at Loki.  Loki ignored this and headed for the front gate.  Mayura sighed and threw the binding spell at him.   
Loki attempted with no success whatsoever to struggle against the spell.  Mayura dragged Loki back into the house and settled him on the couch.  "Why are you so upset?  Koutaro-kun and I broke up before I met you."   
"You were **fourteen**!" Loki growled.   
"...I'm sixteen now.  How old are you?"   
"Why does it matter?  You're not a child anymore."   
"How old, Loki-kun?"   
"I'm a **god**, it doesn't **matter**."   
"...right."   
"And you're an **adult** now, anyway!"   
"Loki-kun, you're being stupid."   
Loki sputtered.   
"Do I have to leave you like this all day?" Mayura asked warily.  It did look like it, from the expression on Loki's face.  Mayura pressed a kiss to Loki's forehead.  "See you after school, Loki-kun."   
Loki growled.   
Mayura got to school.  No one seemed to notice the ears and tail for more than a few moments.  She did, however, have to knee a classmate in the groin once.  Koutaro was late to school, for reasons having to do with car troubles and traffic, and thus did not see Mayura until lunchtime.  "Dai...."  He broke off, eyes going wide, jaw dropping, and certain other things sitting up and taking notice.  "...suki da..." he finished in a dazed tone.   
"...Koutaro-kun?" said Mayura, sounding puzzled.   
Kotaro abruptly teleported over to Mayura's side and wrapped himself around her about like a tentacle monster.  Mayura attempted to pry him off.  "Koutaro-kun, let **go**."   
Koutaro did not.  In fact, if anything, he clung tighter, his...interest...poking at Mayura's hip.  Mayura hissed and swatted at Koutaro like a cat would.  That got her released, as Koutaro fell over with vivid, bloody scratches all over his face.  "Ittetetetete!"   
Mayura glowered at him.   
This did not deter Koutaro from giving it another try.  Though at least this time he tried to keep from pressing too tightly against the nekogen-Mayura.  Mayura again attempted to shove Koutaro away.   
That again resulted in a tightening of Koutaro's grip.  Fortunately, however, he was abruptly yanked away from Mayura.  "Just what the hell do you think you're doing to my girl!?" Loki demanded loudly enough for the whole school to hear.   
Mayura face-faulted.  "What are you doing here?"   
"I came to take care of you!" Loki said fiercely, glaring at Koutaro, who was just sitting up and shaking his head dazedly.   
"...not...a dream...?" the blond boy muttered to himself in confusion.  He had been scratched in Catgirl Dreams before.  Daidouji Mayura had featured in more than one of them, too.  But he was quite sure he had never included this guy in any capacity at any time in a dream of his, and especially not as Daidouji's boyfriend, a role he devoutly wished to fill himself.   
This was going to take a great deal of thought.  Koutaro rose and wandered off in a daze.   
"I can take care of myself, Loki-kun," said Mayura.   
"Like you were doing just now?" Loki asked saccharinely.   
"I would have gotten him off."   
"I'm sure he would have gotten off, yes," Loki said dryly.   
"Off **of me**."   
"On you, more like."   
"Loki-kun, I do **not** need to be protected, and I do not **want** to be protected."   
Loki folded his arms.  "I seem to recall saving your life on more than one occasion."   
"Fine," huffed Mayura.  "I don't need or want to be protected from Koutaro-kun."   
Loki's eyes narrowed.  "Is that so."   
"Loki-kun, I have already kneed a classmate in the groin today, and the only reason Koutaro-kun got his face clawed first was because I was trying to be kind to a friend."   
"Kind to a friend.  I'm sure," Loki said acidly.  Mayura gave Loki a flat look.  Loki returned it with a jealous look.   
"Loki-kun, I'm not going to have this argument with you in front of the school."   
"Fine!" Loki snapped, frustrated.  "Do what you want!  I don't care!  Consider it over!"  He turned on his heel and stalked out of the schoolyard.   
Mayura muttered words it would have horrified her father to realize she knew and stalked after Loki.  Loki refused to stop walking.   
Mayura sighed and followed him out of sight of the school before attempting the binding spell again.  Loki stopped, of course.  One does that when one falls over.  Mayura walked over to him and knelt down next to him, sighing.  Loki said nothing loudly.   
After a moment, Mayura sighed, released the binding spell, and walked off down the street. 

Hel had come to investigate why her father's power had suddenly begun to fluctuate out of control, and at full strength.  She had her eyes closed and was following the traces--difficult, since they felt oddly unfamiliar.  She bumped into someone with an "umf!" and sat heavily on the sidewalk.   
Mayura blinked at the girl in front of her.  "I'm sorry!"  She offered the girl a hand up.   
Hel's brow furrowed as she accepted the hand and rose.  This was definitely **not** her father, and yet this girl just as definitely held her father's power.  "I should have been looking where I was going.  I apologize, too.  ...you look troubled."   
Mayura sighed.  "It's just...stupid boys, with their stupid issues and their stupid possessiveness, you know?"  She wrapped her arms around herself.  "My boyfriend just broke up with me," she said softly.   
"Why don't we have tea at that shop?" Hel suggested, interested in hearing this, and feeling oddly sympathetic.  She didn't know quite why, considering her situation.   
Mayura had started to sniffle.  "He really did say that, didn't he?"  She blinked at Hel.  "...I guess tea would be okay."   
"Something soothing is good at a time like this," Hel offered, leading Mayura over to the teashop and settling in with her at a little table by the window.   
Mayura buried her face in her hands as she started to actually sob.  Hel patted Mayura's shoulder awkwardly and tried to get her to drink a cup of tea.   
Mayura eventually calmed down enough to sip the tea.   "Why don't you tell me what happened?" Hel suggested.  "Maybe we can think of something to do then."   
Across the street, unnoticed, Loki stopped dead as he saw the pair in the teashop window.   
"Well," said Mayura slowly, "Loki-kun and I have known each other for a while, but it was only recently that we actually got involved, and I think I love him and I think he loves me but he found out that I dated Koutaro-kun and got stupid and **jealous** about something that happened **two years ago** and then he said it was over and I don't know what to do."   
"What did he get jealous over?" Hel wanted to know.   
"Koutaro-kun and I made out **once** and Loki was upset that it happened.  ...which I understand, kind of, but Koutaro-kun is like a brother to me now," said Mayura.   
"That's all?" Hel asked, frowning.  That didn't really sound like the father she knew...   
"Hel?" Loki's voice called.  Hel jumped and looked up...just in time to be pulled into a tight embrace.  Loki buried his face in Hel's hair and closed his eyes tightly against tears that escaped anyway.  "Hel!"   
Mayura plainly stared at Loki and Hel.  "..."   
"...o...otou...sama..." Hel squeaked fearfully.  She shoved Loki away from her and backed up several steps, only to find that Loki still held her wrists.   
"Hel, how did you get here?" Loki demanded.  "I thought Odin confined you to Nifelheim...I haven't been able to see you for years..."   
Hel looked confused and a little frightened.  "...o...tousama...doesn't...hate me?" she asked tentatively.   
Loki felt that called for another hug and a few more tears.  "Hel...of course not!  You're my **daughter**; I could never hate you."   
Mayura stared down at the table, looking, if possible, more upset than she had been at first.   
Sadly, when Loki looked down at her, he didn't see her face, only the back of her head.  And he hadn't spent enough time with cats to learn what the position of the ears meant.  "...Mayura.  Are you coming home with us?" he asked.   
There was a long pause before Mayura managed, "No, I'm going back to **my** father."   
"......"  Loki was made unhappy by this, but thought that Mayura would probably get over being mad at him if he gave her some time.  "All right, then.  I'll see you later," he said in a neutral tone.   
"I guess you will," said Mayura flatly.   
Loki led his daughter out of the teashop.  Hel glanced back at Mayura over her father's shoulder with a little frown of concern and puzzlement. 

Mayura did not go back to Loki's house for the next few days.  She actually didn't go anywhere other than school and her room.  Loki approached the temple with his gift in his hands.  Hel had talked to him, using short words and a large stick, and told him how she thought Mayura must feel; he had delayed two days in order to get the things he wanted.   
Misao Looked at Loki.  He was holding a broom, and he looked like he couldn't decide between yelling at Loki and beating him with said broom.  Loki met Misao's look without flinching.  "I came to see Mayura."   
"To apologize," said Misao evenly.   
"Yes," Loki said a trifle belligerently.   
"I thought you would."   
"Why shouldn't I?" Loki asked flatly.   
"Because if you hurt my daughter again I'm going to kill you," said Misao calmly.  "And because I doubt that you'd be here if she didn't have your power."   
"My being here has nothing to do with that," Loki insisted sharply.   
"Really."   
"I intend to marry her," Loki said flatly.   
Misao looked at Loki for a long moment.  "That doesn't exactly improve the odds of my letting you in to see her."   
"I'm not asking your permission," Loki said evenly.   
Mayura appeared in the doorway of the shrine at this point.  "What are you doing here, Loki-kun?"   
"I came to apologize."  He held out the flat box he held in his hands, about the same size as a hardback book.  "I brought you a gift..."   
Mayura glanced at her father, who made a face.  She walked over to take the box slowly.  "How is your daughter?" she asked neutrally.   
"She's doing well, now that she's with her family," Loki said, waiting for Mayura to open the box.   
Mayura opened the box, though it seemed as if she did so merely to avoid looking at Loki.  Inside the box was a small book, written in English and painstakingly translated into Japanese.  The translations were written in beautiful bold calligraphy, probably by Loki himself.  A carefully-de-thorned raspberry vine threaded through the book, marking two pages, and a small and beautiful three-petaled orchid lay on top of the book.   
Mayura, after staring at the gift speechlessly for a few long moments, opened to the marked pages.  She promptly began crying and stepped forward to wrap her arms around Loki's neck.  Loki wrapped his arms tightly around Mayura.  "I have never seen you as either a child or my daughter," he murmured in her ear.   
Mayura pressed her face to Loki's shoulder.  "I love you."   
"I love you, too," Loki whispered.  His voice cracked halfway through--it scared him, how deeply he felt about Mayura.   
Misao sighed and went inside.   
Mayura blinked up at Loki, looking surprised in spite of everything else.  "It scares me, how much I...care about you," Loki admitted, shying away from the words.   
Mayura beamed up at Loki and pressed her face against his neck.  "It's scary because it means that someone else can hurt you without meaning to.  Or hurt you deeply easily."   
Loki closed his eyes and buried his face in Mayura's hair.  "Mmm..."   
"...Loki-kun..."   
"Yes?"   
"We haven't really tried to give you your powers back, have we?"   
"I don't know that anyone's been able to think of a way to do it."   
Mayura frowned.  "...well, I think I absorbed everything that was in your basement."   
"Even if you hadn't, it probably wouldn't be good to try and repeat that," Loki warned.   
"I wasn't thinking of repeating it, I was just wondering how it could happen."   
"Probably because you're a natural medium."   
Mayura blinked.  "Really?"   
"I've noticed it before.  Do you remember that doll?"   
"Yeah..."   
"You were possessed by the ghost of her owner at one time.  And then there was the Volsung sword.  And Nidhogg...I bet that's why your father doesn't want to admit there are such things as ghosts and demons."   
"Because I might get possessed more often?"  Mayura thought a moment.  "...does this mean that technically your power possessed me?"   
"Something like, I think," Loki agreed.   
"...so how do you undo a possession?"   
"If it were a spirit, it would be fairly easy.  But it's not."   
"Oh.  ...what would you do if it were a spirit?"   
"It would depend on the spirit," Loki explained.  "There are several different ways of dealing with a possession, based on the type of spirit involved and whether you care about getting it out intact."   
"Which we do."   
"Yes, and trying to sweet-talk my power into leaving your body is a fruitless exercise since it has no intelligence on its own."   
"...the stuff in the basement seemed to have some sort of consciousness."   
"Jaki always does," Loki sighed.  "But you're definitely not possessed by jaki."   
"...yay?"   
"Yes, yay," Loki said kissing the tip of Mayura's nose.  (Because it was such a cute nose, he thought.)  "I'd really hate to see you trying to kill me again."   
"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!"   
"That's what happened when you were possessed by the Volsung sword, and again when Nidhogg possessed you."   
"..."   
"You see why it's so easy to tell you're not possessed by any jaki?"   
"Hai..."   
"Would you like to come to my house for dinner?" Loki asked abruptly.  "Yamino-kun and Fenrir miss you, and Hel's been talking about you nonstop since Monday."   
"...so that's why you knew how I felt?"   
"Well...sort of.  I thought you were angry with me over Kou-chan, and I was going to apologize for that."   
Mayura just shook her head and smiled slightly.  "It's okay."  She paused.  "...why **did** that upset you so much?"   
Loki was silent for a long moment.  "There are two reasons."   
"Alright."   
"The first is..."  Loki stepped away from Mayura, feeling a need for a little physical distance.  "When she was thirteen, Hel...there was a boy she liked.  I didn't want him around, but he convinced her to sneak out and meet him, and then he raped her.  She got pregnant, but miscarried, and...she hasn't been the same since then."   
Mayura's eyes widened in understanding.  "Oh, Loki-kun..."   
"...and because of that," Loki continued, "when I went to college in America, I specialized in working with rape victims and teenaged pregnancy, in clinics like Planned Parenthood.  I wrote my doctoral thesis on the damage having sex too young does to girls."   
Mayura nodded.  "I can see why you'd feel that way then," she murmured.  "...I thought it was just that you were jealous," she admitted.   
"...well.  I was a little," Loki admitted sheepishly.  "When you were defending him that afternoon, anyway."   
Mayura looked amused.  "That's because he's my **friend**, Loki-kun.  ...even if he has a weird catgirl fetish."   
"Yeah, he and I discussed that.  At length," Loki recalled.   
"Eh?"   
"While I was waiting for the book to arrive," Loki explained.   
"...did he tell you about dating me?"   
"We discussed that, too," Loki agreed.  "And we especially discussed why he had photographs of you changing clothes."   
Mayura blushed.  "...that was...I was..."   
"He won't be doing anything like that again."   
"...you didn't hurt him, did you?"   
"No, I just told him I would curse him with impotence if he tried anything on a girl under the age of sixteen again."   
"That's a threat that would work on Koutaro-kun," agreed Mayura.   
"Oh, it wasn't a threat," Loki said cheerfully.  "As soon as I get my powers back, I'm going to cast a conditional curse on him so I don't have to watch him all the time."   
"Oh.  ...That's..."  Mayura paused.  "...he was only fifteen, you know."   
"And?  He's not now."   
"...so, Loki-kun...you don't think that rules for girls should be rules for boys?"   
Loki looked blankly at Mayura, not understanding her point.   
"You don't think that a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy should have the same care applied to him as a fourteen-year-old girl?"   
"Boys don't generally get pregnant," Loki pointed out.   
"Boys are less prone to emotional damage, too, then.  In all cases."   
Loki frowned, but he made no disagreement.   
"...Loki-kun, you're being sexist, and while in general it's one of the nicest ways you could be, it's still annoying."   
"......" Loki said, offended.  Mayura gave Loki a Look.  "I had sex when I was fifteen and it didn't do **me** any harm," Loki pointed out sulkily.   
"...remember what you told me about Kaitou-san?"   
"...what about it?"   
"...I don't think, clumsiness aside, that he was ready at that point."   
"I didn't do anything he didn't specifically **ask** me to do!" Loki snapped defensively.   
"I know.  But you're using age and sex as a boundary line, absolutely."   
"...better me than Baldur or Odin," Loki muttered.  He didn't really intend for Mayura to hear the comment, either.   
"What was that?"   
"Nothing," Loki said hastily.   
"Alright..." 

By the time Loki and Mayura actually made it to Loki's house, Hel had more or less captured Freyr just outside the front gate.  That is to say, Freyr was on the outside, Hel was on the inside, and Hel was very seriously telling Freyr about her books.   
"....Kaitou-san?" said Mayura, surprised.   
"Ya...Yamato Nadeshiko!" Freyr gawped, startled and nervous now, as if he'd been caught doing something very wrong.  Loki eyed him in pretty much the same way Misao eyed Loki.   
"Oh, you've been talking to Hel-san," said Mayura.   
Heimdall, at that moment, came walking down the street.  In a dress.   "Heimdall!?" Loki sputtered incredulously.   
"Heimdall," Freyr greeted even more nervously.   
"When I find the Norns, I will do everything short of killing them.  Trust me," said Heimdall, darkly.  He turned to Mayura.  "Thank you, by the way, for giving me this form back."   
".......you're welcome, Kazumi-kun."   
"...Mayura...when did you do that and why?" Loki wanted to know.   
"Er...uh...I probably should be going..." Freyr said, hastily mounting his pig.   
".......I have no idea," said Mayura.   
Heimdall grabbed Freyr and dragged him off of Gullinbrusti.  To Mayura he said, "Probably in your sleep, considering it was around two am."   
Hel smiled slightly at the look of blatant terror on Freyr's face.   
Heimdall now turned to Freyr.  "Why are you avoiding me?"   
"...avoiding you?" Freyr echoed.   
"Generally when someone leaves a room whenever I come in and also finds very obviously false reasons to leave the house where they know I'll tend to stay when I can't kill the people who are tormenting me, I assume that they're avoiding me."   
"...why would I do something like that?" Freyr asked nervously.   
Loki folded his arms and leaned against one of the supports for the gate.  Hel leaned against the gate itself, wrapping her fingers around the bars and listening with great interest.   
Heimdall just Looked at Freyr.  Freyr cringed.  Heimdall giving one that look generally prefaced pain.  "Either stop avoiding me or move out of the house completely," said Heimdall finally.   
Freyr seriously considered moving out.  But then he also figured that Heimdall would hunt him down and hurt him if he did that.   
"I'm going to be searching as far as I can for the Norns, so you have some time," said Heimdall shortly.  He stalked off down the street, skirts rustling around him.  Freyr sagged in relief.   
"...so Kazumi-kun really does like Kaitou-san," said Mayura softly.   
Loki sighed.  "Damn.  Now I owe Odin twenty gold pieces.  I should have known not to bet with him."   
Freyr and Hel both looked at Loki incredulously.   
"...Loki-kun, go inside before someone hurts you."   
"...Otousama gambled with Odin?" Hel goggled, leaning on the gate enough to keep it closed.   
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of!" Freyr scoffed at Loki.   
"...I suppose a bet is more important than Heimdall's emotional pain," commented Mayura.   
Loki muttered something highly uncomplimentary about Odin and Odin's sons.  "Hel, sweetheart," he coaxed then, "open the gate for us, please?"   
Hel pressed more of her weight against the gate.   
"It's an entirely separate issue," Freyr told Mayura.  "Surely you can see that."   
"You don't know how you feel yet, do you?"   
Freyr shook his head, a particularly serious look on his face.   
Loki continued to attempt to coax his daughter to open the gate.   
"He's giving you time...well, some time," Mayura amended.   
"I know," Freyr said.   
"So what are you going to do with it?"   
Freyr was spared the necessity to answer when the gate clicked open.  "Are you coming, Mayura, Freyr?" Loki questioned.   
"I'm coming," said Mayura.  She looked at Freyr.   
Freyr started toward the gate.  Hel slammed it shut in his face, putting her back to it and digging her heels into the ground to keep the gate shut.   
"..." said Mayura.  "Apparently Kaitou-san isn't coming."   
Freyr heaved a huge, sad sigh.  His shoulders slumped as he mounted the metal pig again.  "Let's go, Gullinbrusti," he said morosely.   
"Buuuu..." Gullinbrusti agreed, put-putting off.   
"Come on, Hel, Freyr's gone, let me open the gate for Mayura," Loki coaxed, wrapping his arms around his daughter.  It still took him almost ten minutes to get her to let Mayura inside.   
Mayura smiled at Hel when she got inside the gate.  "It's nice to see you again."   
"Mm-hm, you, too," Hel said to Mayura.  She did not smile, but then, she rarely did.   
"I hope Kaitou-san and Kazumi-kun will be alright," sighed Mayura.   
"I'm sure they will," Loki comforted, leading the two girls inside. 

After dinner, Mayura sat in the living room next to Loki.  She did not miss the fact that Yamino was almost as overjoyed as Loki to have her back at the house, and she absently patted Ecchan, who had settled on Loki's head.   
Loki crossed his eyes, looking up, and sighed when he failed to see or feel Ecchan.  "Ecchan is there, isn't he?" he questioned, putting an arm along the back of the couch behind Mayura.   
"Mmhm," said Mayura, continuing to pet Ecchan or, if one couldn't see Ecchan, air.   
Across the room, Hel's hands tightened around her book as she watched her father smile and chat with Mayura.  Abruptly, she asked loudly, "Will Otousama read to me before bed?"   
Loki glanced up.  "Of course, Hel, if you want.  At bedtime."   
"Now?" Hel asked with a mixture of wistfulness and demand.   
"No, Hel, it's not bedtime yet," Loki said gently.  "Come over and sit with us, instead."   
Hel walked over to the couch, still clutching the book, and laid down on it, using her father's thigh as a pillow.   
Loki stroked his daughter's hair with a sorrowful expression.   
Mayura had, by this time, started a conversation with Ecchan.  About demons, the demon world, being summoned, and what Ecchan was.  "I didn't know those really existed," she said, blinking.   
"Eh?" Loki blinked.   
"Tentacle monsters."   
"Well, he **did** go up your skirt that one time," Loki noted thoughtfully.   
"...what?"   
"Do you remember that time you woke up in the zoo, soaking wet, in the middle of the night?"   
"Oh, yeah.  The possessed birds," said Mayura.  "That was the night Kazumi-kun kissed me."   
"........" said Yamino, who had just entered the room.   
"He did more than that," Loki said dryly.   
"He did?"   
"He tried to kill you."   
Mayura frowned.  "I don't remember that..."   
"You were unconscious," Loki explained.  "He dumped you into the pond in the birdcage.  I managed to catch you, but I couldn't hold on, so you fell.  And Ecchan rescued you."   
"Why was he trying to kill me?" Mayura asked.   
Loki grimaced.  "Because he knew it would upset me."   
"Oh."  Mayura mused over this for a few moments before asking, "Why does he dislike you so much?"   
Loki was silent for a long moment.  "He thinks I stole his right eye, which controls his magic."   
"Did you?"   
"Only," Loki said, "because Odin wanted me to."   
"Is that why Kazumi-kun is afraid of people?"   
"...." Loki said, having never exactly seen Heimdall as 'afraid' of anything.   
"I mean," said Mayura, "He acts like he doesn't care because he doesn't want people to know that what he really wants is attention; otherwise he would have just killed you when he found out you had no powers."   
"...I suppose that makes some sense," Loki said dubiously.   
"Heimdall is like Hel," his daughter said unexpectedly, without lifting her head from her father's lap.   
"Lonely," murmured Mayura softly.  Loki's arm tightened around his daughter instinctively.  Mayura leaned her head on Loki's shoulder. 

Freyr had spent the past two days cleaning house.  He didn't do it often, but sometimes when he felt a need to think seriously, it helped to have something to do while he thought.  By the time Heimdall got home, he had even organized Heimdall's dresses by style, color, and material.   
Heimdall was muttering viciously about the conspicuous absence of the Norns, and about his considerations of what to do to them when he actually found them.  "Oh, Heimdall!" Freyr greeted.  "If you had stayed out just another half an hour, dinner would be ready.  **...Gullinbrusti!**  Stop eating that vegemite!"   
"...what is vegemite and why are you so cheerful?"   
"I don't know what it is," Freyr admitted.  "But it was on sale!  I got fifty jars of it for twenty yen!"   
Heimdall frowned.  "...I don't think I want to eat it, then."   
"What?  Why not!?"   
"Anything that you get fifty jars of for twenty yen is not something I want to eat."   
"It's a good bargain, that's all!"   
"Have you tasted it yet?"   
"...well, no..."   
"You taste it first."   
"Gullinbrusti likes it.  He's already eaten three jars."   
Heimdall Looked at Freyr.  "Gullinbrusti ate the welcome mat, too."   
"It was good straw!" Freyr protested.   
"Right.  You try it first."   
"I'm cooking, you try it."   
"You bought it."   
"It can't be any worse than sake," countered Freyr.   
"That doesn't mean that it's good."   
Freyr folded his arms across his 'Kiss the Cook' apron sulkily.  "I went to all this trouble to have the house clean and dinner ready when you got home, and all you can do is insult my bargaining skills?"   
"I do not try new foods before I see that they do not have debilitating effects on other people," retorted Heimdall.   
Freyr sulked.  Lots.   
"...besides, Gullinbrusti's eaten another fifteen since I've gotten here."   
"...eh...**ehh!?**  **Gullinbrusti!**"   
The squabble between pig and master shortly ended when dinner burst into flames--but not until after all the jars of vegemite had been mysteriously destroyed.   
Heimdall sighed when the cleanup in the kitchen was done.  "You know, we never have fires when I cook."   
"You weren't home to cook," Freyr pointed out, eyeing his apron mournfully.  At this point, it said "-ss -- co-k" and there wasn't much left of the rest of it, either.   
Heimdall eyed the kitchen.  "We should probably go out now.  Or order something."   
Freyr took a long considering look at Heimdall, then dashed into his room.  A moment later, he came out dressed in something that had far too many ruffles for something that was supposed to be a suit, and was made of dark blue velvet and white silk.  "Now we match!" he said brightly.   
Heimdall fought the urge to bash his head on something.  The fact that they did indeed now match did not make things better, since he was less than pleased to be wearing a severe black crepe dress with a long skirt and a matching hat with a miniature black veil and black gloves.  He would not have looked out of place at a Victorian funeral.   
"There's a nice place about six blocks away that's got dancing and all," Freyr suggested.   
Heimdall eyed Freyr suspiciously.  "...what kind of nice place...?"   
"It's a really nice place--let's go!"  Freyr dragged Heimdall onto Gullinbrusti's back, and they went.   
Heimdall glowered at Freyr, still suspicious.   
It was a short trip--all of about two minutes.  "Gullinbrusti, you wait on the roof," Freyr instructed his pig.  "You had all that vegemite, so you don't need more food."   
"...you have the money to pay for this?" asked Heimdall, eyeing the restaurant.   
Freyr ignored this and dragged Heimdall inside, where he told the maitre d' they were there with reservations, under 'Kaitou.'  "..." said Heimdall.  He seemed caught between being impressed and annoyed.   
Freyr was decidedly smug as they were seated and drink orders taken.   
Given the smugness, Heimdall opted for annoyed first.  "You did **not** have to blow up the kitchen for this."   
"You wouldn't have come with me otherwise," Freyr pointed out reasonably.  Heimdall couldn't come up with a response to that, since it was undoubtedly true.   
"Oh, the band is starting up again, come on and dance with me!" Freyr bubbled cheerfully.   
"...I do not dance."   
"It's not that hard, come on!"   
Heimdall sighed a longsuffering sigh.  He had noticed that Freyr was in one of his determined moods.  This was, he reflected, probably a good sign in general, but did not bode well for doing anything like winning an argument that evening.  Mostly because Freyr would ignore or bulldoze through any resistance.   
Freyr dragged Heimdall out onto the dance floor and commenced seducing him there, through little touches and brushes and a lot of intimate and very sexy little smiles.  Heimdall found himself blushing, which, happily for his sake, annoyed him enough to keep him from completely melting against Freyr.  The healthy amount of terror at the fact that he was melting at all also contributed to this.   
Freyr was frowning as they returned to their table.   
"...what?" asked Heimdall after a few moments.   
"I thought this was what you wanted."   
"It's..." Heimdall found himself annoyed that he couldn't even be annoyed at Freyr.  He made an attempt at something very unusual for him; tact.  "It's a bit overwhelming."   
"Oh."  Freyr said no more as the waitress brought their food.   
Heimdall made a face after the waitress left.  "People don't do things for me," he said.   
"That's because you always hit them when they try."   
"I haven't hit you yet."   
"Mm," Freyr said around a bite of his dinner.  "Yet is the operative word."   
Heimdall sniffed and turned to his dinner.   
Freyr tried to keep his flirting to a minimum while they ate.  It was clear that he was trying.  It was equally clear that he had fallen into "Courtship Mode" and was not particularly successful.  The fact that Freyr was clearly making an effort was probably what kept Heimdall from actually snapping at him.  He did get a Look, once, however.   
"...." Freyr said in response to this.   
"I'm going to act as if you didn't say that," said Heimdall evenly.   
"...." Freyr repeated.   
"You can go on talking," said Heimdall.   
"...about what?" Freyr asked, deciding at this point that maybe it would be a better idea to let Heimdall pick the topic.   
Heimdall blinked, then said, "Something that does not involve Loki."   
Freyr launched into the first topic he could think of that didn't involve anyone either of them knew, which happened to be a long-winded ramble about his favorite daytime soaps.   
Heimdall interrupted Freyr, "But Alec shouldn't have dumped Mei for Kyoko.  Kyoko just wants his money, even if she is prettier."   
"Alec is a jerk and doesn't deserve Mei anyway," Freyr sniffed.  "She should be with Takuya, who really loves her, even if Alec **is** the father of her child."   
"Oh, I missed that episode," said Heimdall.  "When did that happen?"   
"Monday, when you were gone," Freyr explained.  "And Tetsyua finally slept with Shouta, too.  It was a really really important episode!  ...and the VCR broke..."   
"We could check the fansite; **someone** must have taped it," said Heimdall.   
"The cable modem got knocked in the toilet and shorted out," Freyr said mournfully.   
"How did **that** happen?"   
"I don't know, I wasn't there when it happened," Freyr explained.  "But I think Gullinbrusti was surfing porn sites again and didn't want me to find out."   
"...........that was far too much information, Freyr."   
"You were the one who wondered where all those pop-ups came from last time," Freyr pointed out.   
Heimdall shuddered.  "I really didn't want to know."   
"I tried putting a child filter in, but he knows my password."   
"Child filters don't work very well anyway," said Heimdall.   
Freyr was distracted from the topic when the band returned from another break.  "Come on, let's dance again before we go!" he said, jumping to his feet.  Heimdall allowed himself to be led to the dance floor.   
As Freyr didn't know **how** to dance any other way, this was a repeat of the earlier dance--seduction set to music.  Heimdall was more receptive to being seduced this time.  In the sense that his annoyance at Freyr was mostly gone, so he melted faster.   
The only reason Freyr didn't rip the dress off of Heimdall and screw him on the dance floor was because of a timely dropping of a tray by a fanstricken waitress.   
Heimdall pulled away from Freyr at the crash.   Freyr blinked and shook his head, then pulled Heimdall toward the front door urgently.  Heimdall allowed himself to be pulled, not really giving much thought to it at the moment.  They had stopped dancing and all was well.   
Just outside the front door, Freyr stopped, picked Heimdall up, and whistled for Gullinbrusti.  The pig arrived almost instantly, and Freyr continued to hold Heimdall in his arms like a new bride as they hurried home.  Heimdall squirmed, though not that much, considering they were airborne.   
Freyr didn't even put Heimdall down when they got into the house.  At least not until they hit the master bedroom, at which point he dropped Heimdall on the bed and pinned him there.  Heimdall, upon some consideration lasting roughly a millionth of a second, buried his fingers in Freyr's hair and dragged his head down for a kiss.   
Later, Freyr curled around Heimdall in a happy post-coital daze.  Heimdall was content to lay there, mindless for a few moments.  Then he said, "I suppose this means you're staying."   
There was a long silence.  "Heimdall," Freyr decreed finally, "you are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, **ever** allowed to call me an idiot again, after that."   
Heimdall looked amused.  "I'll just call you a moron, then."  Freyr snatched up a pillow and whacked Heimdall with it.   
Heimdall scooted to sit back against the headboard.  "I'd retaliate, but I haven't hit you this evening.  Yet."   
"...no pillow fight?" Freyr questioned, disappointment written on his face.   
"Oh, all **right**."  Heimdall picked up a pillow and whacked Freyr back.   
Shortly after that, the room was covered in pillow feathers. 

"Mayura?"  It was well after dark, and Loki's children had already retired for the night (after observing her father carefully, Hel had given her brothers a look that promised pain if they didn't do what she wanted), leaving Mayura and Loki alone in the living room.   
Mayura blinked at Loki sleepily.  She'd been half-dozing on his shoulder, and his voice had taken her by surprise.  "Hm, Loki-kun?"   
Loki caressed Mayura's cheek lingeringly as desire glittered in his eyes.  "I've missed you..."   
Mayura leaned into Loki's touch, her eyes falling closed.  "I missed you too," she breathed.  Loki pulled Mayura gently into his lap, where he kissed her passionately as his hands caressed her body through her clothes.  Mayura kissed Loki back urgently and ran her hands down his chest hesitantly.   
Loki spent several more minutes kissing Mayura that way, then scooped her into his arms and stood, heading up the stairs to his room.  Mayura wrapped her arms around Loki's neck and lay docilely in his arms.  Loki kicked his door shut and laid Mayura down on the bed.  "Mayura..." he breathed reverently, kissing her again.   
Mayura made a soft sound into the kiss.   
"Shh...Mayura, I'll take care of you," Loki murmured warmly.   
Mayura nodded.  "I...I know."   
Loki kept his promise--he was exceptionally gentle, and patient, and drew out every last ounce of pleasure for Mayura before finally taking his own.  Mayura curled up next to Loki afterwards.  "I love you," she whispered.   
"Mmm..." Loki breathed.  "Me, too."   
"...ne, Loki..."   
"Hm?"   
"...you said...they made you leave your home, right?"   
"...un," Loki agreed, pressing his face against Mayura's hair.   
"...if you...if you got the chance to go back there..."   
Loki's arms tightened.  "I would go," he admitted slowly.  "But not for long.  Like someone who has a chance to go back to a house they were thrown out of and collect their belongings."   
Mayura pressed closer to Loki.  "As long as you would come back."   
"I would," Loki promised.   
"Alright," sighed Mayura.   
Loki was silent for a long moment.  "Hel likes you," he noted.   
"Hel's a nice girl."   
"Do you think you'd be able to deal with her as a stepdaughter?"   
"....I..."  Mayura blinked, then smiled.  "I think I could."   
Loki reached over to his bedside table and produced from it a dark gray ring-box.  "I'm not that sure of exactly what current customs about marriage are," he said wryly.  "The last time I looked into that, I would have been making this proposal to your father, in front of at least half a dozen witnesses.  But I did figure out there's a ring involved..."   
Mayura stared at Loki.  "You, you got me a..."   
Loki flipped on the light and offered the box to Mayura.  "I'd intended to wait until morning," he admitted.  "But I don't think I can."   
Mayura reached out to take the box and opened it.   The ring in the box wasn't your typical diamond engagement ring.  Instead, it was a band of silver filigree, in the form of animal interlace, with an opal held in the mouths of two of something that might have been birds or might have been wolves.   
Mayura immediately put the ring on.  "It's beautiful."   
"An old friend of mine made it for me," Loki said.  "It should resize itself to fit your finger no matter what."   
Mayura smiled brilliantly at Loki and kissed him.   
Loki returned the kiss.  "Is that a yes?" he asked with a soft chuckle.   
"Of course it's a yes!"   
Loki kissed Mayura again.  "Good.  I'd hate to find out I was mistaken on this."   
"Mm.  I hope Koutaro-kun won't hold me to that promise we made when we were five, because I don't think he wants to be a bridesmaid."   
"...e...eh?" Loki said, trying not to laugh.   
"We promised that we'd make each other part of our wedding party," Mayura explained.  "But I'm not sure that you'll have room with people standing with you since you have Yamino-kun and Fenrir and Narugami-kun and Kaitou-san and Kazumi-kun."   
"...I hadn't planned on inviting Heimdall, or letting Freyr into the ceremony."   
"But you're friends with them."   
"No, I am not," Loki said patiently.   
"...really?"   
"Really," Loki insisted.  "He wants to kill me.  Or at the least cause me as much pain and suffering as he possibly can."   
"I'm sure he'll get over it someday."   
"...do you actually understand the difference between 'friend' and 'enemy,' Mayura?"   
"Of course.  An enemy would try to kill you during a time when you were completely vulnerable, rather than teaching the person who has your powers a very useful skill."   
Loki muttered something Unkind about that 'useful skill.'   
"Well, I'm sure you think it's useful when it's not being used on you."   
"I have my own version," Loki sniffed.   
"Really?" asked Mayura, sounding interested.   
"Un," Loki agreed.  "Ask Hel to show you sometime, I taught it to her when she was a little girl and her brothers kept picking on her."   
"Alright...Kazumi-kun was surprised I was good at it, wasn't he?"   
"He was," Loki agreed.  "I was, too, to be honest.  That's not an easy spell to learn."   
Mayura looked thoughtful.  "But I learn some things faster than you and some things slower, right?"   
"That's only to be expected," Loki pointed out.  "You aren't me."   
"It would be inconvenient if I were."   
Loki grinned.  "Not entirely," he said slyly.   
"Hm?"   
"A fair number of people enjoy watching," Loki said to the ceiling.   
"..."   
"Or so I've found over the years."   
Mayura tried not to think about it, failed, and blushed.  Loki chuckled and blew in her ear.  "Would you like to watch?"   
Mayura attempted to process this and only managed incoherent sounds and more blushing.  Loki laughed openly.  Mayura picked up a pillow and whacked Loki with it.   
Loki laughed some more and fought back.  ...unfortunately, he grabbed a long-lost pillow imp.  Mayura managed to banish the pillow imp only after it bit Loki's hand.  "I thought we'd gotten all of those..."   
"...it could have bitten at a worse time," Loki allowed, wincing in pain.   
Mayura nodded fervently.  "Bandages?"   
"First Aid kit's in that drawer," Loki sighed, nodding at the bedside table.   
Mayura pulled out the First Aid kit and bandaged Loki's hand.   
"I hope that was the last one," Loki sighed.  "I really do."   
"They seem to like you."   
"I've noticed," Loki said dryly. 

**To Be Continued...**


	5. Chapter 5: Friends

Daidouji Mayura: Chaos Goddess  
Chapter 5:  Friends  
By Lady Crysiana and Yasha-hime

  
Heimdall was almost bouncy, which would have been less unnerving had he not also been in a pink sweater and matching poodle skirt with bobby socks and saddle shoes.  He was walking down the street and generally not paying attention to the world around him.   
Hel was not impressed by the poodle skirt or the saddle shoes.  The sweater, though, she thought, was really quite pretty, and she wondered where he had gotten it as she trailed along unobtrusively, clutching a couple of new books to her chest.  The fact that she never took her eyes off of Heimdall unnerved a lot of people she passed, and nobody got between them.   
Heimdall did, eventually, notice that Hel was following him.  The fact that he could feel her aura across town and could feel it infinitely better while being followed even at a distance probably helped in this.  Hel continued to scare people as she got a few steps closer to Heimdall and followed him for several blocks at that distance.   
Heimdall decided that going home might help things.  He did not want to ask why Loki's daughter was following him, mostly because he'd seen her while she was in training and if it was to fight, he'd feel safer with some space and several circles of protection between them.   
Hel followed Heimdall home, pressing her lips against her books.  Heimdall got into the house, shut and locked the door, and was very grateful that the curtains were almost invariably shut already.   
Hel settled down to wait.   
"Heimdall, you're back so early?" Freyr blinked, watching his soaps in the living room.  "'Beauty and Sin' isn't on yet..."   
"Loki's daughter is stalking me."   
"....Hel...is **what**!?"   
Heimdall sighed and hoped that Freyr would not immediately go out and challenge Hel.  "Following me everywhere.  Stalking me."   
Freyr had already abandoned his popcorn bowl (Gullinbrusti was thrilled) and was headed for the front door.  Thirty seconds later, there was a loud explosion, a flash of light, and a Freyr strung up in a sparkly spider's web.   
Ten minutes later, a very irate Loki was calling Heimdall's house.   
"Yes?" said Heimdall coolly.   
"Hel," Loki said grimly, "is crying.  Would you mind telling me why?"   
"She followed me all around town and I made the mistake of mentioning it to Freyr," Heimdall explained.   
"And?" Loki prompted awfully.   
"Freyr went outside, there was an explosion and a flash of light and now he's hanging from one of her spider webs," said Heimdall.   
"I'm going to want to discuss this with him," Loki responded, still in full Father Mode.   
"Will you please ask your daughter why she felt the need to follow ten feet behind me all through town at some point?"   
"Let me talk to Freyr.  Now."   
Heimdall sighed and decided it was well enough that he had a portable phone.  He went outside and held it up to Freyr.  "It's Loki."   
That discussion took about ten or twenty minutes and involved a lot of shouted accusations back and forth.  The only reason it ended so soon was that Gullinbrusti chewed through the phone line and rescued his master.  Heimdall sighed and began seeing what he could do to undo the binding spell on Freyr.   
Hel's spells were as tangled as her mind; Freyr was going to be stuck for a while.   
After about an hour, Heimdall blinked.  "'Beauty and Sin' is on!"  He dashed into the house, leaving Freyr still stuck in the web.   
"**Ahhhh!  Tape it!  Tape it!**" Freyr shrieked after him. 

Heimdall walked through town aimlessly.  He looked up and thought that he should probably set up a tent over Freyr before the black, threatening clouds actually dumped rain all over everything.   
Hel walked out of a shop ahead of Heimdall.  As usual, she clutched a book close to her chest; she also carried a plastic shopping bag in one hand.  She didn't immediately notice Heimdall as she turned to look at her brother.   
Before Yamino could say anything, Heimdall stalked up to Hel.  "Why were you following me?"   
Hel backed up instinctively, right into her brother.  Most people reacted that way to an irate--or even slightly annoyed--Heimdall.  Heimdall crossed his arms.  He noted the venomous glare that Yamino sent him and gave Yamino a flat look.  "You are nowhere as impressive as your father, and I only asked her a question."   
The wide-eyed and not-quite-tearful Hel stammered out something of which only the word 'friends' was clearly audible.   
"...I will be more inclined to be your friend when you let my boyfriend down from the web you have him in."   
"He tried to cast a spell on me!" Hel responded indignantly.   
Heimdall rubbed at his temples.  "He's like that sometimes."   
"And he touched me," Hel added darkly, in a tone that indicated Freyr was lucky a binding spell was all she'd thrown at him.   
"He thought you were stalking me," Heimdall pointed out.  "And it's **Freyr**; what did you expect?"   
Hel didn't seem to see the point of that--but then, she had only met Freyr about six times in her entire life, given her banishment to Nifelheim.  Yamino coughed.  "Freyr is not the most sensible of people," he explained.  Hel blinked up at her brother expressionlessly, which meant she was saving that comment for future analysis.   
"In any case," said Heimdall, "come and let him down and watch soaps with us."  He looked at Yamino.  "You're not invited."   
Hel handed her bag to Yamino.  "Okay," she agreed immediately.  "...what are soaps?"   
"You'll see."  Heimdall headed off down the street, not waiting to see if Hel was following.   
Hel, of course, did follow, since she wanted to be friends with Heimdall.  She took the precaution of preparing several of her strongest spells, though, just in case.  Heimdall turned to glance at Hel.  "Don't worry about anything.  Freyr's pretty harmless."   
Hel did not release her spells.  She's been lulled into trusting easily once; she wasn't going to do it again.   
Heimdall eyed Freyr when they arrived at the house.  "Tadaima."   
Freyr lifted his lolling head.  "Okae--what is **she** doing here!?"   
"She's going to let you down and we're all going to watch soap operas together.  If you attack her, you get no sex for a month."   
Freyr promised to be good.  Very, very, very good, in fact.   
"He should be okay," Heimdall said to Hel.   
Hel reluctantly released Freyr from the spiderweb.  Personally, she thought it was kind of nice as an art statement to keep him up there, but...   
"Come on inside," said Heimdall, heading into the house.  Freyr glared at Hel sulkily and Hel held up a spell in one hand.  "Children," said Heimdall warningly in a tone to match Loki's.   
Freyr sulked into the house.  Hel took her spells back into herself and followed him in slowly, looking around curiously at Heimdall's house.   
Heimdall retrieved the last of the popcorn, made up a bowl, and sat everyone down on the couch to watch the current soap opera.  (Which, incidentally, was not "Beauty and Sin," which was coming on next.)   
Hel did not partake of the popcorn, but she found the soap operas absolutely entrancing.  Especially 'Beauty and Sin.'   
Around eleven PM, Heimdall started wondering why Loki hadn't come looking for his daughter yet.  This probably only happened because they had to break in the 'Beauty and Sin' marathon.   
Loki kicked the door open.  Literally.  It had taken him several hours to get out of the binding spell (again), and he was armed with a large metal bat in place of Laevatin.  "**Heimdall!**"   
"Shhhhhhh!  This is the best part of the episode," grumbled Heimdall.   
Loki twitched violently, and the only thing that kept the TV intact was the fact that his daughter trapped him in a spider web with a frown.  Her irate father made as much angry noise as he could with his mouth bound shut.   
At the end of the episode (which was fortunately also the end of the tape) Heimdall turned to Loki.  "Gullinbrusti chewed through the phone cord."   
"**Mrf!**" Loki growled.   
"She was perfectly safe."   
Whatever it was Loki said then, it wasn't nice.   
Heimdall turned to Hel.  "Can you at least take the gag off?"   
"You won't like what he says," Hel pointed out.   
"It'll make him feel better."   
Hel released her father from the spell.  Large amounts of property damage occurred.   
Afterwards, Heimdall sat on the remains of the couch.  "That was interesting."   
Freyr, who was seated on the floor typing an IM to Yamino (who happened to be a Net buddy through eBay), agreed.  "Are you sure you don't have a concussion, Gullinbrusti?" he queried anxiously.   
"Otousama does," Hel volunteered as she sat on her unconscious father's back. 

**_KaitouFrei:_**_ Come and get your dad, he just wrecked our living room.  Wanna go to the furniture outlets tomorrow?_  
**_MasterChefYamino:_** _There's a sale at the Insane Gadgets store; we'll have to bring a truck.  And we'll be right over._

"At least the tapes are alright," commented Heimdall. 

** _KaitouFrei:_**_ You might wanna bring a change of clothes for your sister, she got tea and beer all over her dress.  If we're going to that store, I probably ought to not tell Heimdall we're going and sneak out._

"Sou desu ne," Hel agreed, sipping some tea with complete disregard for her lack of a cup and liquid-stained clothing. 

_ **MasterChefYamino:** Mayura-san is getting some clothes for her.  And if you're going to sneak out, remember what happened with the chimney last time. _

"Will Loki be alright?  That was a heavy blow to the head," said Heimdall, sounding utterly disinterested. 

**_KaitouFrei:_**_  I'll get up real early and use the front door.  I wouldn't want to miss the sale!_

Freyr continued tapping away at his keyboard.  "It's not that bad," he commented.  "Loki has a hard head." 

**_MasterChefYamino:_**_ Mayura wants to know if she can come with us and says to say hello to Heimdall._   
**_KaitouFrei:_**_  Just don't bring Fenrir, he bit me last time._

"Like some other people here," said Heimdall dryly.  "You do know that I can see what you're typing, of course." 

** _MasterChefYamino:_**_ I'm sure Niisan will be happier staying home.  There's no food involved. _

"...."  Freyr looked up with a half-fearful expression and closed his laptop on his fingers.   
"You are **not** shopping for furniture at that store with Loki's keeper."   
"Insane Gadgets doesn't sell furniture!"   
"Then you aren't going there at all."   
"But I have a Frequent Shopper card!" Freyr whined, opening the laptop up again. 

**_KaitouFrei:_**_  Busted, dammit! . _

"I see," said Heimdall darkly.  "Remind me then, if you do, why you insist on buying cheap food, if you obviously have the money to buy trinkets."   
"I only buy bargains!" 

**_MasterChefYamino:_**_ Well...tell him that there's a furniture store **next** to Insane Gadgets?_

Heimdall gave Freyr a Look.  "Right." 

** _KaitouFrei:_**_  He's going on about the food thing now.  I'm in it up to my neck.  See you when you get here--ja._

"Seriously!  Insane Gadgets is a factory outlet store!"   
"You **do** know that I can still see what you type, I'm sure," said Heimdall.  
Freyr shut the laptop down completely and shoved it under the TV.  Heimdall sighed and turned to Hel.  "He's as bad as your brother."   
"Sou desu ne," Hel agreed again.   
Heimdall turned back to Freyr.  "We're going furniture shopping tomorrow.  We are not shopping for useless junk."   
"Gadgets are not useless junk!  And anyway, I was going to use Loki's credit card number, like I always do."   
"Oh.  Well, then, we can go to the gadget store for a while, but we're **still** getting furniture."   
"Of course!"   
Heimdall looked around.  "And wallpaper."   
"I want to come, too," Hel said.   
"I think we'll have to ask your father first.  At your house."   
Hel gave Heimdall a look that suggested her father wasn't going to be an issue regardless.   
Heimdall sighed.  "Well, can we at least pretend to ask him so he sputters when you go anyway?"   
"Okay."   
There was a knock on the door.  Considering that the door was in the middle of the yard, this was somewhat amusing.   
"Oniisan?" Hel questioned.   
Yamino and Mayura walked into the house.  "...he broke through the binding spell," Mayura explained as she looked around at the remains of the room.   
"Fenrir-oniisan probably chewed through it, I bet," Hel commented.   
Yamino offered a hand to Hel.  "We brought you some clothes to change into," he said.   
"Arigatou," Hel said, taking the clothes and locking herself into the bathroom to change.   
Mayura and Yamino knelt next to Loki and Mayura helped Yamino haul Loki onto his back.  "Sorry he was so much trouble," said Mayura.   
Loki was still out cold.  Freyr rubbed the back of his head and said, "Well, at least he's concerned about his daughter...what's that ring you're wearing, Yamato Nadeshiko?"   
Mayura hid her hand behind her back.  "...ring?"   
"That opal ring on your left hand," Freyr agreed.   
"Oh, that's just...um..."  Mayura stared at the floor.  "Loki and I kinda got engaged."   
Yamino nearly dropped Loki.  Freyr toppled over sideways, and Hel came out of the bathroom, her dirty clothes wrapped up in a neat little bundle, and said, "It's about time you told us."   
Mayura blushed.  "He said he wanted to throw an actual party."   
"So Loki's getting married again, hm?" said Heimdall mildly.   
Mayura stared at Heimdall.  "............again?"   
"Otousama and Okaasama divorced centuries ago," Hel said placidly.   
"He didn't say he was married before..."   
"A lot of things tend to slip Loki's mind when it's inconvenient," Freyr muttered uncharitably.   
"I'm sure he'll have a very good explanation," said Heimdall cheerfully.   
"Mayura-san, we should go..." said Yamino hesitantly.   
"It's dark," Hel noticed finally.  "If we're going to go shopping tomorrow, we should sleep."   
Mayura nodded, glancing sideways at Loki.  "Let's go home."   
"Heimdall, do you think we should fix the door or something?" Freyr asked, watching Loki and his family about half a block away.   
"Tomorrow.  Just prop it up for tonight," said Heimdall with a sigh. 

It was almost 8:30 the next morning before Loki stirred and opened his eyes with a groan.  Yamino noticed through Loki's bedroom door and brought him some tea.  "Good morning, Loki-sama.  Mayura-san is upset with you again."   
"...what for this time?" Loki asked, sitting up and holding his aching head in his hands.   
"For not telling her about Okaasama."   
"..."  Loki sighed and got up.  And just as promptly sat back down.   
"You had a pretty bad concussion, Loki-sama," said Yamino, sounding concerned.   
"This is one of those things that's really inconvenient about being mortal, isn't it."   
"Mayura-san says so."   
"...I think I like it less than sunburn, if that's possible."   
"Mayura-san also said that this reminded her that you shouldn't drink alcohol, if you were thinking of it," said Yamino.   
"Gods are not spared hangovers," Loki said dryly.   
"I told her that, Loki-sama, and she asked for stories."   
"Did you tell her any?"   
"I said that I didn't feel right doing so," said Yamino.  "...but she was going to talk to Neesan."   
"Hand me my pants," Loki said immediately.  Yamino did so. 

Hel was seated in the dining room, reading her book, when Mayura came in.  She looked up with the tiny not-quite-smile she wore when she was pleased to see someone.   
"Yamino-kun says that gods get drunk but he won't tell me any stories about your father," said Mayura.   
"Otousama sparkles when he gets drunk," Hel said after a moment's thought.   
"Eh?  He said he didn't remember ever sparkling."   
"He told Okaasama that, too," Hel recalled, "when Oniisan wanted to know if she could sparkle like Otousama."   
"...what happens when he sparkles?"   
"When he took us to visit in Asgard, he started an orgy," Hel revealed.   
".........." said Mayura.   
"And he wore a very pretty dress."   
"...what color was it?"   
"It was pink," Hel recalled, marking her page and closing her book.  "He took it from Frigg-sama.  I was supposed to stay in her bower, but after Otousama took the dress I followed him.  I watched it all from under Odin-sama's chair."   
"And there was an orgy," said Mayura, very much in the tone of someone trying to comprehend something without their brain breaking and failing.   
"Well, there usually was when everyone got drunk," Hel shrugged.  "It's why I was supposed to stay in the bower.  I was only six, too young for it."   
"...were you safe under the chair?"   
"I got stepped on twice, but nobody found me," Hel said.  "Frigg-sama kept a closer eye on me after that, though."   
"You're Loki's child.  I'm surprised she didn't expect you to go," commented Mayura.   
"Fenrir-oniisan was chewing on her shoes," Hel explained.  "And Midgardsormr-oniisan crawled up her skirt to hide."   
"Oh.  ...what did Loki-kun do when he found out you went?" Mayura asked.   
Hel shrugged.  "Nothing," she admitted.  "Frigg-sama had already switched me, anyway."   
"Sou ka..."   
"Besides, he was busy being sick until Odin-sama called us."   
"...oh."   
"And that was the last time I saw Otousama until I came here," Hel finished.   
"Why?  What happened?" asked Mayura.   
"Odin-sama sent me to Nifelheim to be the Queen of the Dead, and Midgardsormr-oniisan to the bottom of the sea in Midgard, and Fenrir-oniisan he chained up in Asgard."   
Mayura was taken aback, and she just stared at Hel for a long moment.  "How could he do that to you?" she finally asked in a hushed voice.   
"Odin is afraid of Ragnarok," Loki's voice broke in.  He was dressed, more or less, in jeans and a v-neck white sweater, and barefoot.  He was also leaning heavily against the wall, and his hair was even less brushed than usual.   
Mayura looked over at Loki.  "Ragunaroku?"   
"It's a Norse word," Loki explained, making his way one slow, careful step at a time to the table.  "It means ending, destruction...rebirth.  Most of the gods and most of mankind will die, and only a handful will survive to return life to the nine worlds."   
"But...why would being afraid of that make Odin do all of that?"  Mayura rose to support Loki over to the table.   
Loki closed his eyes and leaned against Mayura; the world stopped spinning so badly when he did.  "There are prophecies that say I and my children will bring about Ragnarok," he explained.  "Very old, very stupid prophecies."   
Mayura helped Loki into a chair.  "Mou, what kind of moron would think that making you feel like all your old friends hate you would make that **less** likely?"   
"Moron is a good word for Odin at times," Loki said dryly.  "He has so much wisdom at his fingertips because he never uses any of it and hoards it like a dragon's treasure."   
"...wait, so the reason Kazumi-kun came here to kill you is **that**?"   
Loki hesitated.  "Not exactly.  Or rather, not directly."   
"...well, it was also because of his eye, right?"  Asked Mayura.  She frowned.  "But..."   
"Odin is the one who sent me to take his eye," Loki reminded.  "Rather than taking it himself.  Because if he had, Heimdall would have given it to him freely.  The only reason I can think of for him to send me...is to cause even more bitterness between us."   
Mayura wrapped her arms around Loki's shoulders.  "So he might have been planning this?"   
"I think he must have been."   
Mayura pressed a kiss to Loki's temple.   
"I could almost be grateful to him, sometimes," Loki said after a pause.   
"Eh?"   
"If he had never sent me here, I would never have known you," the ex-god said with a soft smile.   
"Oh," Mayura breathed softly.   
"You might," Hel said, turning a page in her book, "even still be married to Okaasama."   
"That's right," said Mayura.  "You didn't tell me you were married before," she said accusingly.   
Loki gave his daughter a sour look.  "Mayura, it was almost twenty-two hundred years ago," he tried.   
Mayura crossed her arms.  "You were **married** before."   
"Twenty-two hundred years ago!" Loki repeated.  "I don't even know where Angorboda **is** anymore!"   
"Then why didn't you tell me?"   
"Because I haven't even **thought** about Angorboda in centuries!"   
"...Even when you see the children you had with her?"   
"Yes, even then," Loki said patiently.  "I think of them as my children, not Angorboda's children."   
"I see."   
"Considering that as far as I know she never even tried to see any of them after she divorced me, I don't see why you think that's a problem."   
"It's just...there's a lot about you I don't know."   
"Mayura," Loki said softly, "we're more or less even on that field."   
Mayura sat and blinked at Loki.  "Eh?"   
"All I know about you is what I've learned in the time we've known each other.  I'm neither omnipotent nor omniscient.  I've never been able to read your mind--believe me, there were times when I wished I could!  The only difference between us is that I've lived a few more years than you have."   
"I guess so..."   
"Besides," Loki said in a teasing tone, "I thought you **liked** mysteries."   
"Yeah, but the more I find out about you, the more there are!  ...like sparkling orgies."   
"......"  Loki glared at his daughter, who was smirking into her book.  "I should turn you over my knee, Hel, and spank you until you can't sit down."   
Mayura smiled.  "Are you coordinated enough to do that right now, Loki-kun?"   
"And you, as well," Loki retorted snippily.   
"That seems more like something Kazumi-kun would do, from what I've heard of him," said Mayura blandly.   
"If Heimdall ever spanks you," Loki said with saccharine sweetness, "I will personally remove all future possibilities for him and Freyr to enjoy each other."   
"Otousama will not touch Hel's friends," his daughter said icily, looking up.   
"Kazumi-kun is only interested in Kaitou-san anyway," Mayura pointed out.   
"Hel, go to your room," Loki ordered firmly.  "You are not allowed to threaten your father.  You know that."   
Hel sulkily got up and stomped up to her room, where she slammed her door loudly.   
"How's your head?" Mayura asked after a moment.   
"Somewhat better," Loki allowed.  "The room isn't spinning quite as much."   
"Are you sure you should be up?"   
"No," Loki said wryly, "but I am anyway."   
Mayura stood and offered Loki a hand.  "You're going back to bed."  Loki started to protest, but before he got a full word out, the front doorbell rang a dozen times.   
Yamino hurried to answer the door.  "Freyr-san!  ...Heimdall..."   
"I tried to sneak out, but he slept on top of me," Freyr said mournfully.   
"Because I knew you were going to try to sneak out," retorted Heimdall.   
"You have boring taste in furniture," Freyr complained.   
"I prefer to think of it as 'sane,'" said Heimdall.   
"Oh," Loki said weakly as Mayura herded him past the door.  "The Fruit Patrol is here."   
"We're here to take your keeper and your fiancée furniture shopping and your daughter home to watch dramas," Heimdall informed him.   
Loki was feeling poorly enough not to argue.  "Fine, go ahead.  Take the dog, too, if you want."   
"Daddy!" Fenrir protested with a wounded look.   
Despite not hearing exactly what Fenrir said, Loki got the message.  "Sorry, Fenrir.  I'm just not feeling very good today.  Please go with them."   
"But we can't leave you alone in the house like this!" Mayura protested.   
"Why not?" Loki questioned.  "I'm going to take a nap on the couch until you get back."   
"You don't leave people who have concussions alone."   
"I'll be fine," Loki protested.   
"If that's all that's bothering you, Yamato Nadeshiko, I can fix it," Freyr offered.   
"**No!**  No," Loki said, backing up several steps.  "The cure is worse than the disease when it's your cures."   
"...well...I suppose leaving you to your own devices for a little while couldn't hurt," said Mayura doubtfully.   
Heimdall muttered something about the inadvisability of **ever** leaving Loki to his own devices.   
"Did anyone ask you?" Loki snapped.   
"Otousama should take medicine," Hel said from the top of the stairs.  She had changed her clothes, wearing an outfit more similar to one Mayura had worn two days before (as in, identical except for the color), and for once she didn't have a book in her arms.   
"Why?" asked Yamino, sounding puzzled.   
"Because it won't be fun to shop if Mayura-okaasama is worried," Hel explained.   
"Geh," said Mayura.   
Freyr was already busy brewing something that looked vile and smelled worse.  Gullinbrusti, it seemed, came equipped with a Bunsen burner and a selection of glass flasks.  Where Freyr was getting the ingredients it might be best not to ask.   
"Do you have helmets?" Heimdall asked Yamino.   
"........" said Yamino.   
"I'm serious."   
"........." said Yamino, again.   
"Almost ready," Freyr said cheerfully.   
"I am **not** drinking that," Loki said flatly.   
Mayura looked doubtful.  "...will that really make Loki-kun feel **better**?" she asked.   
"No," Loki said.   
"Of course!" Freyr said at the same time.  "It's the same one I gave Thor all the time when he was younger."   
Mayura looked to Heimdall, who smiled.  "I'm not getting blamed for **this** one.  It's up to you whether you badger him to take it or not."   
"Well..."  Mayura glanced at Loki.  "If it would make you feel better..."   
"It won't," Loki predicted.   
"Otousama will take the medicine," Hel said confidently.  "He can't run fast enough to escape right now."   
"Try it, Loki-kun?" Mayura implored.   
"Do I look crazy to you?"   
Freyr started to chuckle evilly.   
"No," said Mayura, "You look like you have a concussion.  And really attractive."   
"Flattery will get you nowhere right now," Loki retorted.  "I'm not particularly capable at the moment."   
"It's ready!" Freyr announced in an evil scientist voice.   
"Oh," said Mayura sounding disappointed.  "Even if I scandalize Kaitou-san and say 'especially when you're naked'?"   
"You might find it painful when my aim was off," Loki said crudely.   
"...." said Freyr.   
Heimdall coughed and looked to Hel.  "Do you want to completely immobilize your father to make this easier or should I?"  Hel blinked.  Heimdall sighed, set up a protection around himself, then tossed a binding spell around Loki.   
It took Freyr almost five minutes to pry Loki's jaws apart and pour the potion down his throat.  "...you're really not feeling well, are you?" Freyr noted at this.   
That was when the Technicolor show started, and everyone got to watch Loki turn six or eight different colors before his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell limply to the floor--still bound, one might add.   
Heimdall removed the bindings.  "He should feel better soon," he noted.   
"...at least he didn't hit his head on the coffee table on the way down," said Mayura finally.   
"Dump him on the couch and let him sleep until we get back," Freyr suggested.  "He'll be in a better mood then."   
Yamino got Loki onto the couch after a few moments.   
"Are you sure he'll be okay?" said Mayura for the fiftieth time in those few moments.   
"Absolutely," Freyr assured her.  "He'll wake up in about half an hour, probably throw up, curse at me for a while, and then be right back to normal."  Freyr spoke from many, many, many years of experience dealing with people recovering from his potions.   
"...Shopping will take more than a half-hour, right?"   
"All day," Freyr said happily.   
"Yay!" said Mayura.  She promptly hurried past Heimdall out the door.  Heimdall dashed after her.  "You don't even know where we're **going**..." 

Hel noticed a strange aura around Heimdall, and found it odd enough (for anyone else, it would have been alarm) to reach out and tug on his sleeve lightly.  Heimdall turned to her.  "What is it?" he said, with less annoyance then he turned on most people.   
Hel blinked in surprise as she realized she was actually looking **down** at Heimdall.  "..." she said.   
Heimdall belatedly realized that he was looking up at Hel.  "...the Norns," he said flatly.  "...am I still in a dress?"   
Hel shook her head no and pointed at a nearby freestanding mirror.   
Heimdall looked in the mirror.  He managed, with not a little force of will, to keep from screaming.  "...you know," he said in an eerily calm voice, "I can't wait until the Norns come back to Tokyo."   
"H...Heimdall," Freyr said in a choked voice, having turned away from a discussion with Yamino and Mayura about a couch.   
Heimdall was, at the moment, wearing a wide-brimmed, stiff white hat with crosses on the brim and two feathers coming out of it.  That was the most noticeable thing.  The oversized red coat (with cuffs to match the hat) had a bow that put Loki's to shame, held by a red brooch.  And then there were the black boots and presumably pants (it was hard to see under the coat.)  ...and the gloves and the epaulets.  The glasses, however, seemed an unnecessary addition.  As did the cloak.   
"**....kawaiiiiiiiiiii!**" Freyr shrieked, glomping Heimdall.   
"...death is far, far too good for the Norns," muttered Heimdall.   
Freyr was so enthusiastic in his glomping that he actually picked Heimdall right up and squeezed him a la Elmyra.   
"It's cute," Hel said when she was absolutely sure she wouldn't laugh.  Yamino managed to cough rather than laugh.  Considering that Heimdall was struggling to breathe, he was fairly safe at any rate.   
"What happened to Kazumi-kun?" Mayura asked.   
"He shrank," Hel said solemnly.   
"The Norns returned me to my sealed state," Heimdall explained once he could breathe somewhat.  "...and changed my clothes," he added darkly.   
Freyr rubbed his cheek against the back of Heimdall's shoulders, beaming.   
"...I bet they left me with only dresses in the closet," muttered Heimdall.  "Dresses that fit my kakusei form."   
"More shopping?" Hel asked.   
"Once Freyr puts me down," said Heimdall.   
"Oh, yeah, we found you a couch!" said Mayura brightly.   
"It's a nice couch," Freyr confided, still holding onto Heimdall.  "Good for..."  He trailed off and abruptly dropped Heimdall in horror.   
Heimdall sighed.  "You know, I'm sure this day could get worse.  Much, much worse.  However, if it does, I will not be responsible for any innocent bystanders." 

Freyr and Heimdall went straight home from the outlets, to await their furniture and plot the demise of the Norns.  Mayura was surprised Yamino hadn't actually bought anything, but was cheerful enough on the way home.  She walked through the front door in front of Yamino and stopped dead.   
Loki was in the arms of a strange man.  ...that is to say, the strange man had Loki's hands pinned behind his back, and held his head by the hair and was kissing him.  A very undressed Loki, at that; the ragged remains of his clothes were tossed carelessly on the floor.   
"Odin," breathed Yamino.  His tone was caught between fury and horror.   
Mayura was simply staring, uncomprehendingly.   
Hel blinked at Odin for a moment, then crossed the room toward him, a bright smile on her face.   
Odin dropped Loki and backed away from Hel warily, as anyone even slightly sane would do.   
Hel reached up and curled her fingers around Odin's right eye, which didn't match his left.  Odin jerked back and faded out of existence--but not before Hel ripped the eye loose.   
Loki knelt on the floor, arms wrapped around himself, staring at the carpet.  Mayura ran over to kneel next to Loki and hold him close.   
Hel licked at the blood on her fingers thoughtfully.  This eye didn't match the other one, but it looked familiar.   
It took her a moment to think that it didn't match Odin's left eye, but it **did** match Heimdall's.  The bright smile returned, and she skipped out of the house merrily.   
Loki shuddered away from being touched.  Yamino stared after Hel for a moment before getting a blanket and settling it around Loki.  Mayura now sat next to Loki, though not close enough to touch.   
"I had thought that was over with," Loki said several minutes later, in an oddly steady voice.   
Mayura reached out to touch Loki, then drew back.  "I shouldn't have left you alone," she sighed.   
"What do you think you could have done if you had been here?"   
"...I don't know but..."   
"It's easier just to let him have what he wants.  It hurts less, and then he leaves me alone for a while."   
There was a pause.  "...you lived like that?  Just...with him..."   
Loki shrugged.  "It's the way it was.  Still is, apparently."   
"...can I...can I hug you?"   
Loki leaned against Mayura, burying his face in her shoulder and wrapping one slightly-shaky arm around her waist.  Mayura wrapped her arms around Loki.  She petted his hair gently.   
Loki was silent for a long moment.  "I wish he'd make up his mind." 

Hel cupped the eye carefully in her still-bloody palm as she trotted down the street.  The police didn't bother her; they were too afraid.  She stopped, finally, at Heimdall's door and rang the bell.   
Heimdall opened the door.  "Oh, Hel.  I didn't expect you by again.  ...why is your hand bloody?"   
Hel smiled as brightly at Heimdall as she had at Odin, even as she grabbed him by the hair and shoved the eye into his empty eye socket.  "It does match," she noted.   
Heimdall shrieked and clutched at his eye.  Freyr came running.  "Heimdall!"  He fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around Heimdall protectively.  "What did you **do** to him!?"   
Heimdall took a few shaky breaths and said, "...she returned my eye."   
"...eh...**eh**!?"   
"Odin is only supposed to have one eye," Hel said solemnly.  "That one didn't match."   
Heimdall still had a hand over his right eye as he looked up at Hel.  "You stole my eye back from Odin.  ...from Odin's **face**."   
"Odin hurt Otousama."   
"...he does that often."   
Hel shrugged, glancing at the clock.  "...'Beauty and Sin.'"   
"..." said Heimdall, then nonetheless extracted himself from Freyr's hold and turned the show on. 

Loki gave Heimdall a distinctly evil look as he let the other god into the house.  Heimdall ignored it.  "Hel told me you wanted to talk to me."   
"Actually," Loki said consideringly, "I considered applying any number of actions to your person, none of them pleasant, before I settled on talking."   
"I assumed that."   
"Would you mind explaining this?"  Loki shoved a credit card bill practically in Heimdall's face.   
"Oh, that.  That would be Freyr's fault."   
"No, that would be the other card," Loki said dryly.   
"Then I have no idea."  Heimdall took the bill from Loki and started to read it.  "Huh."   
Loki folded his arms.  "Cable TV.  Cable modem.  Assorted merchandise.  A brand-new computer that I am sure you'll be interested to note Hel has named 'Alec.'  What the hell is Beauty and Sin?"   
"It's a drama," Heimdall said absently.  "I can't believe she named her computer after **Alec**."   
Loki twitched.  "You've gotten my daughter obsessed with a television show."   
"I am not to blame for your daughter's obsessive nature."   
"Regardless, you're responsible for this obsession!"   
"I don't see how."   
"May I remind you whose house she is invariably in at 3:00 every afternoon?"   
"It's nice to have her over.  She brightens the mood in the house."   
"Heimdall," Hel said imperiously from the top of the stairs.  "Come and see Alec."   
Heimdall sighed and walked up the stairs.  "You didn't put it in your father's study, did you?" he asked.   
"No," Hel denied.  "In the room across the hall from my bedroom."   
"Good.  I'm not going to die today."   
"Otousama can't kill anyone right now," Hel said placidly.   
"Well, he could try," Heimdall amended.   
"Only himself."   
"Sou ka..."   
"Otousama feels pain here," Hel said with a small frown, touching her breast over her heart lightly.   
"...really?"   
"Mayura-okaasama says so."   
"...you already call her that?"   
Hel nodded.   
Heimdall hmmmed. "What are they going to do when he gets his power back?  Once he gets resealed," he clarified.   
Hel shrugged.  "Who knows?"   
"They haven't thought of that yet, have they?"   
Hel shook her head with a sly smile.   
Heimdall smiled.  "Well, I certainly won't bother them with it..."   
Hel walked into her computer den and turned on the monitor.  A very pretty wallpaper of Alec popped up.   
"I can't believe you named your computer after him," grumbled Heimdall.   
"Alec is pretty like Otousama."   
"I suppose so."   
"Or Odin," Hel said with a small, troubled frown, pressing her hand against the screen over one picture.   
Heimdall scowled and said, "Odin spends too much time trying to cause chaos."   
"It's supposed to be Otousama's job."   
"Your Otousama hasn't been working very hard at it recently," said Heimdall dryly.   
Hel smirked.  "Mayura-okaasama has been getting sick in the morning," she remarked.   
Heimdall grinned.  It was not exactly a nice grin.  "Does your otousama know about that?" he asked sweetly.   
"Iie."   
There was a pause.  "Does she know what it means?"   
"Iie," Hel repeated, glancing at the drugstore bag by the computer.   
"...I suppose you won't let me have the fun of telling them."   
"I'm going to send this to Mayura-okaasama's Papa," Hel explained, showing Heimdall the positive test.   
"I'm not going to ask how you managed that."   
Hel smiled mysteriously.  "Would you like to come with me?"   
"...not when you smile like that."   
"Why?"   
"...you remind me of me, and that's not a good thing in this case."   
"But it's not us who are involved."   
"Innocent bystander rule."   
"...?"   
Heimdall smiled slightly.  "It would take a while to explain."   
"You don't have to see the fireworks, then."   
"...fine, I'll come."   
Hel smiled with satisfaction, picked up the bag, and walked out of the room.  Heimdall followed closely, looking exceptionally cheerful.   
Fortunately for their sake, Loki was sitting in the living room, staring off into space.   
Heimdall decided that they should leave before Loki could ask inconvenient questions.  Like why they looked so happy.   
Loki didn't even **see** them, despite having his face turned right toward them.  Hel frowned.   
"He'll snap out of it," sighed Heimdall.  "He gets that way sometimes."   
"Mayura-okaasama is worried."   
"He needs something to snap him out of it is all," said Heimdall.   
Hel glanced down at her bag.  "Mm," she said meditatively, pulling the front door open.   
Heimdall followed Hel out and closed the door.  "Shall we go?"   
"Hai," Hel agreed. 

Misao was not worrying about his daughter.  He was not stressed that she had not been home.  At all.  He was not, in fact, waiting on the temple steps to see if she would visit today like she had been on a daily basis.  At least, he tried to tell himself that.   
Pink hair peeked above the edge of the steps slowly.  Misao glomped the pink-haired figure.  "Mayura!"   
Hel froze, wide-eyed.  "....!"   
Heimdall coughed politely.  "Hel, this is Mayura's father, Misao.  Misao, this is Hel.  I'm Heimdall."   
Misao blinked at Heimdall, then the words registered and he let go of Hel.  "I'm sorry, Miss."   
Hel took a step back and gasped as she started to fall down the stairs.  Misao reached out and grabbed onto Hel before she could fall.   
Hel was still all wide-eyed and flustered when she regained her footing.   
"Are you alright?" asked Misao.  "Come up to the shrine."   
"U-un," Hel stammered, clutching the plastic bag to her chest in lieu of a book.   
Heimdall waited until they were on level ground to add, "Hel is Loki's daughter."   
Misao fell over.  "....what?"   
Hel blinked.  "You are Mayura-okaasama's father and you didn't know about Otousama?"   
"...I didn't know he had children."   
"Four," Hel said.   
Misao was glad he was already on the ground.   
"Me and Midgardsormr-oniisan and Fenrir-oniisan and Sleipnir-oniisan," Hel said, counting herself and her siblings off on her fingers.  "Sleipnir-oniisan is Midgardsormr-oniisan and Fenrir-oniisan and my half-brother."   
Misao now looked confused.  "Isn't Fenrir the puppy?"  He decided to try to get up.   
"Mm," Hel agreed.  "And Midgardsormr-oniisan, who's calling himself Yamino Ryuusuke, is a snake.  And Sleipnir-oniisama is a horse."   
Misao thudded back onto the ground.  "..............."   
"Now we'll have to wait until he recovers to tell him," said Heimdall disapprovingly.   
"Tell him that Sleipnir-oniisan has a different father than us?" Hel asked innocently.  Misao, luckily for him, did not have enough of his brain intact to hear the comment.   
"He only touched you twice," Heimdall sighed.   
"But he should know about the family he's going to be part of, shouldn't he?"   
"Hold your comments until he can process them again."   
Hel sighed and squatted down to poke Misao with a stick.  Misao groaned.  "Ojiisama," Hel prompted.  "Ojiisama."   
Heimdall snickered as Misao came around to stare at Hel in horror.   
"Ojiisama, are you all right?" Hel asked curiously.   
"Why are you calling me that?" asked Misao suspiciously.   
Hel blinked innocently.  "Shouldn't I?  You're Mayura-okaasama's father?"   
Heimdall decided to help Misao out.  "Yes, he's your stepmother's father."   
Misao twitched.  "...my daughter is not married to Loki."   
"Yet," added Heimdall.   
Hel upended her bag onto Misao's chest.  Misao picked it up, blinked at it for a few long moments, then got up and headed down the steps of the temple.  Hel clasped her hands behind her and assumed a cat-in-the-cream not-smile. 

Misao barged into Loki's house without knocking.  The fact that he was angry enough to have people scatter away from him on the street was probably why the door looked like Freyr had gone through it.   
Loki blinked himself out of his daze and attempted to focus on his visitor.  Misao lit into Loki, first with a litany of everything that had happened to Mayura since Loki came.  Mayura was downstairs and staring within seconds and Yamino wasn't far behind.  It took Misao close to ten minutes to get to, "**And** you've gotten my only child **pregnant**!"   
Loki turned his head to look at Mayura, seeking confirmation.  "...pregnant?"   
Hel and Heimdall had snuck in the door (at Hel's insistence) and were listening from either side of the living room doorway.   
Mayura looked startled.  "I didn't...wait."  She frowned.  "That makes sense, actually."   
"You didn't know?" asked Misao incredulously.   
Loki rose slowly.  "Pregnant?" he said again, considering it.  And then, as it broke through his funk that Mayura was going to bear him a fifth child, he broke into a wide smile, racing over to pick Mayura up and swing her in a circle.  "I got you pregnant!"   
"......." said Mayura.  Her mind was shutting down, and not in the happy way at the moment.   
Yamino beamed.  "I'll have another sibling, then," he said, stating the obvious in his joy.  He was already making up lists of things to order from his catalogues.   
"...Hel-san told me..." Misao managed.   
About that time, Loki's Father Sense™ went off.  "Hel," he said flatly to the left side of the doorway.  He glanced at the right side.  "And Heimdall, I'm sure **you** were in on this, too."   
Heimdall walked in, looking Amused.  "I just came along to watch the fun.  Though it's probably not appropriate that I knew your fiancée was pregnant before you or she did."   
Knowing exactly what her father was going to say, Hel pelted up to her bedroom and locked herself in.  She would, she thought, be winding up there, anyway.  Heimdall hurried from the room as well.  And out of the house.  And towards his own house, rather quickly.   
"...Heimdall?  Is something wrong?" Freyr queried when his lover burst into the house.   
"No.  Just watched Hel play a rather upsetting trick on her father and decided that I didn't need to be around to be blamed for my being there."   
"What trick?" Freyr wanted to know.   
Heimdall paused and eyed Freyr.  "You won't get upset," he said.  It was more of an order than a question.   
"?"   
"Hel took it upon herself to tell Mayura's father that Mayura is pregnant with Loki's child.  Mayura and Loki didn't know this yet," Heimdall explained.   
"...Yamato Nadeshiko is pregnant?"   
"Yes."   
Freyr jumped to his feet.  "I must go!"   
"No, you mustn't," said Heimdall firmly.  "Loki just found out he's going to be a father again, and Mayura is dealing with becoming a mother.  They need time alone right now."   
"...not there!" Freyr said impatiently.  "Yamato Nadeshiko will need a proper baby shower!  There's no time to waste!"   
Heimdall stared, then said, "You'll have to fight Yamino over it."   
Freyr was already halfway out the door.   
"..." said Heimdall.   
"Are you coming or not?"   
"...no.  I think I'll hide here." 

Loki frowned in concern.  "Mayura?" he questioned softly, once everyone had left them alone for a bit.   
Mayura had her face pressed to Loki's shoulder.  She didn't lift it when he spoke to her.  "It's just...sudden," she said.   
"If you don't want to...there...are ways," Loki said with clear reluctance.   
Mayura's head snapped up and she looked at Loki in shock.  "I wouldn't...I don't..."  She fell silent and took a deep breath.  "I want the baby.  I want your baby."   
"I'm glad," Loki breathed with profound relief.   
Mayura smiled wryly.  "I just didn't expect this so soon."   
Loki coughed into his hand.  "I...can't say that I did, either," he admitted wryly.   
"...what will I do about school?" Mayura murmured.   
"You should probably continue to go for as long as you can," Loki suggested.   
"Well, I planned that...but everyone..."   
"Hm?" Loki prompted.   
Mayura shrugged uncomfortably.   
"What is it, Mayura?" Loki prompted more firmly.   
"...people aren't nice to girls who get pregnant at sixteen," Mayura said finally.   
Loki paused to reflect silently on the change in times, when a healthy sixteen-year-old woman was looked down upon for fulfilling her womanhood.  "...I see."   
"And...I don't mind people thinking I'm weird for liking mysteries or just strange in general, but..."   
"Even if you're married, they'll be that way?"   
Mayura started.  "...less if I'm married."   
Loki grinned.  "You can tell them your boyfriend kidnapped you and chained you to the bed until you agreed to elope," he suggested.   
Mayura smiled slightly at Loki.  "If we're going to get married now, we have to plan it before Kaitou-san decides to help."   
"How fast can you pack?  I'll even brave the train for this."   
"Papa will **kill** me when we get back.  Five minutes."   
"He can't kill you until after the baby is born.  Meet you down here in five, then."   
Mayura dashed up the stairs.  Loki was about half a step behind her.  He stuffed three changes of clothes and all his credit cards and cash into a duffel bag, then raced back down the stairs.  Mayura was close behind going back down the stairs.  "...I can't believe I'm doing this," she said to the world in general.   
"I can," Loki said, grabbing his fiancée and kissing her.  "We've got to hurry if we don't want to get caught."   
"Un."  Mayura headed for the front door. 

**To Be Continued...**


	6. Epilogue: Aftereffects

Daidouji Mayura: Chaos Goddess  
Epilogue:  Aftereffects  
By Lady Crysiana and Yasha-hime

  
Mayura had her arm linked with Loki's as they walked through the front gate towards the house.  "I can't believe we've been gone for a month..." she mused.  "...who should we worry about most?"   
"Your father," Loki said promptly.   
"...not your children?"   
"The volume isn't as ear-splitting."   
"Papa doesn't make the food we eat."   
"Yamino-kun couldn't poison us if he tried."   
"Hel-chan has access to the kitchen."   
"Hel wouldn't do that."   
Mayura considered it.  "No, I guess she wouldn't."   
Upstairs in Hel's den, Hel abruptly muted the Beauty and Sin eyecatch.  Heimdall glanced at her.  "What is it, Hel?"   
"Otousama?"   
Heimdall headed out of the room and down the stairs.  "Loki?  Mayura?"   
"Busted," Loki grimaced to his wife.   
Mayura beamed at Heimdall.  "You're back to normal again?"   
"Huh?"  Heimdall looked at himself.  "Oh, that.  I broke the seal while you were gone."   
Hel walked down the stairs past Heimdall and stopped in front of her father.  "Otousama," she said coldly.   
"Hel," Loki greeted warily.   
Hel slammed her hand into her father's chest and yanked his soul out.  Unlike when she'd taken Odin's eye, she didn't do any physical harm.  Just turned her father into a very startled and unhappy ghost.   
Yamino had hurried into the room when he heard Loki and Mayura's voices.  Now he gaped at Hel. "Neesan!  Why did you..."   
Mayura's eyes widened.  "Loki-kun!"  She suddenly fell to her knees as Loki's power left her.  She shrieked and curled into a ball as it felt as if she were being ripped in two, as if part of her soul were being stripped away.  Finally, the flow of power stopped and Mayura knelt, gasping, with her arms around herself.   
Loki's body glowed pale gold for a moment, then shrank back into the form of a child.  An unconscious child, but still.  Loki's ghost looked down at it.  "Hel, that wasn't nice."   
"Otousama left.  Otousama didn't call.  Otousama sent an **ugly postcard**!"  Hel did not look at her father; she regarded her brother instead.   
Yamino frowned.  "Yes, but...that's not a reason to kill him."  He hurried over to help Mayura to her feet.   
"Yes, it is," Hel said adamantly.  Her father's ghost winced.   
"It won't help to say I'm sorry, will it?"   
"No," Hel responded flatly.   
Mayura leaned limply against Yamino.  After a moment, he picked her up and cradled her in his arms.  She stirred slightly, shakily.  Loki would have been Upset with his son, being somewhat the possessive type, had he not been rather busy attempting to cajole his daughter into returning him to his body.  "I'll buy you the entire five-season volume of Pretty Sin, or whatever it is, on DVD!" he offered desperately.   
Heimdall coughed and glowered at Loki.  "That's 'Beauty and Sin,'" he said coolly.  Hel gave her father a hard, flat look.  Loki winced as he saw his chances drop below zero.  "Nonetheless," added Heimdall, "you should return him to his body, Hel."   
"No."   
"You hate Mayura that much?" Heimdall asked mildly.  "Enough to kill her husband, the father of her child and leave her alone?"   
"Not alone," Hel denied.  "Mayura-okaasama has us.  And Otousama isn't welcome in Nifelheim."   
"It still hurts her more than anyone," said Heimdall calmly.  "She's the one who would be raising a half-god on her own."   
"...sou ka?" Hel reluctantly queried her stepmother.   
Mayura blinked to clear her head, and said softly, "Sou da.  I care for all of you, but Loki...please give Loki back."   
Hel glared at her father one more time, then picked him up, crumpled him into a small ball (the look on his face, while you could still see it, was an absolutely priceless combination of indignation and dismay), and stuffed him back into his body.   
Heimdall leaned over Loki.  "You do, of course, owe me now."   
"Owe you what?" Loki demanded warily, sitting up.   
"You could always come through on the promise of the five seasons of 'Beauty and Sin.'"  Heimdall looked amused.  "Of course, your being sealed again is amusing enough."   
"I'm going to have to discuss it with the Norns," Loki sighed.  "You'll have to wait until next month for the DVDs.  I maxed out all of my credit cards."   
"I discussed my situation with the Norns a little while ago.  I think they're still hiding in their house."   
"Sou ka.  I should probably go and talk to them while they're still intimidated, then."  Loki climbed to his feet and turned to Mayura.  "Would you like to come?  You can help me buy presents for everyone who's still mad at us.  Or at least pick them out."   
"As long as you let Freyr throw Mayura's baby shower, he'll stop being mad at you," Heimdall contributed with a smile.   
Yamino set Mayura on her feet, then steadied her when she wobbled.  "Alright," she said.   
"...I suppose," Loki said, wincing as he remembered parties Freyr had planned before.  "Yamino-kun, would you mind working with Freyr on it?  I know you wanted to do it yourself..."   
Yamino beamed at Loki.  "Of course I can work with him on it."  There was a particularly Loki-ish gleam in his eye.   
Heimdall eyed Yamino.  "I'll make sure that I'm not there for that discussion."   
"I'm tempted to op out of the baby shower entirely," Loki said with a nervous look at his son.  He grabbed Mayura's wrist and dragged her out of the house.   
Mayura blinked but followed Loki easily.  "I don't think it'll be that bad..."   
"You've never been to a party hosted by Freyr," Loki said wryly, still holding Mayura's hand.  He carefully refused to notice that he looked more like her kid brother than her lover and husband at this point.   
At least his ring still fit.   
"Where are we headed?" asked Mayura.   
"To visit the Norns," Loki explained.  "The three goddesses of fate.  You've met them before--White Night Fortune-telling."   
"Oh, them."  Mayura thought for a moment.  "They seem like nice people."   
"They are, usually," Loki said.  Then he sighed.  "But they have a snarky sense of humor."   
"Like the dress thing?"   
"A very, very, very good example, yes."   
Mayura smiled.  "And the outfit he was in when they changed him back, too."   
"...eh?"   
"It was really dorky.  I think Freyr took pictures."  Mayura added, "They changed Heimdall back when we were in the furniture store and they changed his clothes at the same time."   
"Pictures?  Ooooooh."   
"You can ask him about them at the baby shower."   
"If the Norns don't have any," Loki said thoughtfully.   
"They won't if it means you're going to amuse them at a party."   
"The might, if I tell them I'll ask Heimdall to come look for them," Loki countered.   
Mayura frowned.  "What did he do to them?"   
"I don't know, and I'm not sure I want to," Loki admitted.   
"..." said Mayura.   
"It's best not to ask in a case like this.  As long as there are no visible marks."   
"...right." 

Mayura looked around Loki's backyard.  K-chan was dancing on a table (which Heimdall had already retreated under) while Yamino glowered at Freyr from his place near the food table.  Thor was standing there, looking confused as to how he'd gotten there, but headed for the food table anyway.  Loki, who was not only still a child but had been given kitty ears and a bell, idly kicked Heimdall out from under the table and gave the Norns a sour look as they arrived.  It was left to Hel to greet them and tell them how much her Otousama appreciated the ears and the bell.   
Heimdall Smiled at the Norns and waved cheerily.   
The only thing that kept them from bolting was the fact that Hel turned and gave Heimdall a small frown of annoyance.   
Heimdall sighed and turned to Loki.  "You just need to know how to talk to them," he said.   
"I know how to talk to them," Loki responded.  "As long as Mayura isn't around to 'help.'"   
"You mean, 'And I had him try on this cute hat but he wouldn't keep it on and it had cute kitty ears!'?"   
"Who told you about that!?" Loki demanded.   
"No one had to.  It's the Norns."   
Loki still looked suspicious.   
"And it might be on video.  Somewhere."   
"...probably, knowing them," Loki admitted reluctantly.   
"Actually, 'somewhere' is 'Hel's VCR,'" said Heimdall.   
"...you know, every time you open your mouth lately, Ragnarok sounds like a better and better deal."   
"No it doesn't.  You have an unborn child."   
"I suppose I can put it off a few more years.  As long as you swear on your right eye never to produce children with my daughter."   
"I will never touch your daughter," said Heimdall.   
"Official oath," Loki demanded.   
"Shouldn't you be worrying about Hel and not me?"   
"You're closer, and have had considerably less success at killing me."   
"But I'm not the one who would be dragging **her** into bed."   
"Consider it an excuse to refuse."   
"She'd just kill me.  ...and **then** sleep with me."   
"No, no, I made her swear never to do that to any man.  Or woman, for that matter."   
Heimdall eyed Loki suspiciously.  "Are you sure?"   
"Very.  I made her reaffirm it when she started talking about that Alec guy being pretty."   
"...right.  Fine, I swear by my right eye that I will not have sex with your daughter."   
"It's not the sex I object to, it's progeny," Loki corrected.   
"In the event that she inherited your fertility, my version is safer," retorted Heimdall.   
Freya decided to arrive just then, on the arm of someone she'd met at the gate.  Koutaro couldn't resist both peeking down Freya's blouse and trying to cop a feel.   
"This may be true," Loki allowed.   
Freya waved to Freyr.   
"You have to wonder what kind of power your children might have.  Since originally their mother was the goddess and you were the human," commented Heimdall.   
Freyr noticed Koutaro copping feels and immediately challenged him to a duel.  Koutaro asked if he got to choose the weapon, in that case.   
"You know, it's entirely possible that's why Odin sent people to kill me."   
Freya crossed her arms and glared at both of them.   
"It must be interesting to know she's carrying twins, though."   
"Shh.  I haven't told her yet, and I don't think she knows."   
Freyr ignored the glaring and agreed to let Koutaro choose the weapon.  Koutaro promptly chose kisses and set the terms that the one to collect the most in ten minutes would be the winner.   
Freyr choked.   
Koutaro set about collecting kisses, beginning with Mayura.   
"Are you going to let him do that to your wife?"  Heimdall asked.  Then he said, "Excuse me while I go hide under the table again."   
Loki trotted on over to where Koutaro was trying to steal a kiss from Mayura.  Mayura had already pushed Koutaro away with the understanding that he was looking forward to a kick to the groin if he did it again.  Loki gestured to Koutaro to bend down.  Koutaro, curious, did so.  That was when Loki grabbed him by the ears and bussed him soundly on each cheek and then on the lips.  "That makes four," he said cheerfully as Koutaro reared back in shock and horror.   
Freyr was by this point busily trying to drag Heimdall out from under the table.  "You **have** to help me!"   
"No I **don't**," retorted Heimdall.   
Mayura fell over laughing.   
Koutaro felt the need to purify his lips.  Thus he grabbed Freya, dipped her, and tried to suck out her tonsils.  Freya decided that going with it would work just as well as anything else.   
"Yes you **do**!" Freyr insisted, yanking on Heimdall's ankle.  "You're my **boyfriend**!"   
"...he's making out with your sister," said Heimdall pointing.   
Freyr forgot to let go of Heimdall's ankle as he raced over to "save" his sister.   
Mayura watched the ensuing madness with wide eyes.  This caused her to completely miss the ensuing madness behind her, which consisted, unsurprisingly, of an eating contest between Thor, Gullinbrusti, and Fenrir.   
The Norns quietly attempted to take their leave, only to be stopped and kissed by Koutaro first (despite him having a black eye and a split lip), and then stopped again and forced to return Loki to his normal, adult form.  They looked at each other as they finally escaped.   
This crew was always going to be a lot of headaches. 

**Owari**


End file.
